LIFE AFTER TERTIARY

By: Maame Yaa Ntiamoah

Sponsoring one’s education is one of the most outstanding achievements for parents and benefactors. However, after acquiring all the knowledge with its enlightened experiences and investment, it is absurd ending up as a liability.

After gaining my B.A. in Journalism, watching T.V. and Radio personalities with little or no journalistic background become successful; in contrast to trained Journalists become data collectors, doing the fieldwork with all the risk involved and earning a penny with no recognition in Ghana’s current economy is a dream killer. I realised it is not the certificates that matter but the personality.

Without giving up on the dream, I decided to become an employee of a reputable organisation as a communicator. At the same time, I started to build my brand and make a respected business name for myself. I knew that one of the significant problems confronting Africans as a whole is unemployment. Living in a country with over 76% of literacy and over seven hundred thousand (700,000) unemployed graduates, I knew the journey would be challenging.

It’s been two (2) years since National Service. A year after school, all attempts to secure a job or sustain a business proved futile. I started buying and selling swimwear for ladies during my first year in school, with my pocket money on Instagram with the name “Mhayarhs_bikini”. I invested my profit in expanding the young business by selling both on campus and outside campus, including pool instructors.

During my National Service, after my Diploma in Communication, in 2019, I decided to pursue B.A. in Journalism as a weekend student. During this period, my business started to crumble, as working and schooling took all my time, i.e., working on weekdays and going to school on weekends. As if that was not enough, Covid-19 set in with the President banning all outdoor programmes. Beaches were closed, making the need for swimwear no longer a necessity. I then decided to switch to lingerie, loungewear, unisex sleepwear, unisex underwear and other beauty products with the handle “mhayarhs_world” on Instagram.

After Covid-19, part of the savings was invested into searching for a job as a weekend student. The change in focus resulted from the scarcity of funds to re-invest, as the little profit goes into paying bills, food, and other personal needs. However, as the saying goes, never say die until the bones are rotten. I ventured into cooking on order alongside buying and selling.

Nonetheless, maintaining the habit of propelling a dream to reality, hopes are high for a better tomorrow, so keep looking out for “mhayarhs_world”. It will undoubtedly become a reality.