Dr Winfred Akapanga, founder of the Ghana National Association of Entrepreneurs, has called on unemployed graduates to employ social media to market their skills and products for potential employment.

“In this highly Informational Communication Technology era, Businesses cannot thrive very well without the deployment of social media and as young graduates you must take advantage of this trend to create jobs for yourselves and others instead of relying solely on government for jobs.”

Dr Akapanga made the call in Bolgatanga, Upper East Region, at a job fair organized for graduates by the Dansyn Innovation Social Organization, a non-profit organization operating in the region.

The Bolgatanga 2020 Job Fair which brought together employers and job seekers was sponsored by the Mastercard Foundation Young Africa Works Project, World Bank, and Ministry of Communication.

It allowed employers to share with job seekers, the necessary qualities needed for gaining employment.

It aimed at complementing the government’s effort at addressing the graduate unemployment problem in the country and further brought together the Ghana Tech Lab in Accra, Ghana National Association of Entrepreneurs, Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU) Cyber Ghana, a non-profitable Cyber Security Organization.

Speaking on the theme, “Marketing and Social Media”, Dr Akapanga told the graduates that government alone could not provide job avenues for all who graduate from Tertiary institutions every year and so there was the need to be innovative through social media.

This he said, could brand, market, or position them and their products to attract local and international customers.

The founder entreated the young graduates to form associations and to help market the products of businessmen in the region who could not use social media to market their products and indicated that as job seekers they could make a living through that.

Mr Azunre Richard, a Lecturer of the BTU who doubled as the Network Administrator of the University, cautioned the graduates to be very mindful about the way and manner they use social media and hinted that many employers used social media as a window of employing job seekers.

“Most job seekers don’t get employment because of the way and manner they conduct themselves through the use of social media. The attitude and behavior of many people are reflected in the way they chat with friends and others on the social media and their dress code also counts”, he warned.

He also cautioned the general public to be mindful of fraudsters who use the social media to defraud others and announced that the BTU was seeking accreditation from the National Accreditation Council Board to run diploma and degree programmes in Cyber Security and Forensic Studies.

Mr Daniel Nang, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dansyn Innovation Social Organization, explained that his outfit decided to bring the employers and job seekers together to help address the challenges of unemployment among graduates.

He indicated that while many of the beneficiaries had gained employment, others were waiting for the opportunity, stressing “all this is to enable the youth to gain employment and also employ others’’.

The CEO stated that his outfit had been supporting youth entrepreneurship with Training and Skill Development in Information Technology, to make an impact in the Community by Enhancing the Economic and Social Status of the People with special emphasis on women.