Research and advocacy think-tank, the Gulf of Guinea Maritime Institute (GoGMI) has expressed its desire to see young maritime entrepreneurs become the new crop of job creators in the country.

According to them, the youth who endeavor to participate in the maritime industry of Ghana must dare to dream and explore entrepreneurship in strife to carve a meaningful career path for themselves.

The youth, they say could leverage digital, innovative transferrable skills as well as traditional professions like accounting, among others, and provide solutions for Ghana’s maritime industry which remains underdeveloped.

However, they maintain that efforts by aspiring young people will not be far-reaching without the concerted support of academia, industry, and government.

Speaking on Eye on Port, the Programs Manager, Lawrence Dogli, and Associate Director, Stephanie Schandorf of the Gulf of Guinea Maritime Institute have called for more efforts from the three key entities.

“One of the clarion calls for the industry is to see how the industry can engage and build partnerships with think tanks and institutions dedicated to youth development and see how we can mobilize resources to build expertise to provide training, transferrable skills to young people who want to take up vocational opportunities in the maritime space,” Mr. Dogli said.

Stephanie Schandorf on her part emphasized the need for support from government institutions and agencies.

She said the government must put policies in place to encourage blue economy ventures.

“Entrepreneurship cannot be successful without the government's buy-in. without government actively putting steps in place to ensure that once these young persons come out, they have the bandwidth that they need to be able to set up their own blue economy businesses.”

“In Ghana, it is important for collective support from the government towards the ultimate goal of youth development in the sector and recognizes that it is a shared agenda. Government agencies may have the tendency to focus on land-centric concerns. We must recognize that Ghana is not limited to her land alone, our ocean is also part of our territory. We must move from the thinking of just visualizing our land borders,” she continued.

According to her once government agencies begin to recognize the national interest in the ocean space, that will be huge towards advancing the positive outcomes sought for.

On the part of academia, GoGMI is urging the government to develop policies that can support the research conducted by training institutions in the area of maritime entrepreneurship.

In addition, the government must be intentional about the curriculum, guided policies, and comprehensive action plans that can support the training modules that will be developed by maritime training institutions.

The Programs Manager at GoGMI, Lawrence Dogli said the government should consider conducting a sector analysis to investigate and come out with sectors within the industry that are readily investable but also areas that demonstrate an existing skills gap to concentrate efforts on.

According to the young, maritime development advocates, dedication to youth development in the maritime sector fulfills key deliverables of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which will go a long way to generate socio-economic development for the present and future. As such, it should be treated with the utmost urgency and commitment.

These submissions came in the aftermath of the Ocean Career Fair, which the Institute and its international partners organized for high school students in the country to help them familiarize themselves with opportunities available within the maritime industry.