Studentshubgh is an organization from Ghana working to support the life of students in anglophone Africa. In this interview with Impakter the Co-founder, Afia Bobia Amanfo, will share with us the story of her organization, their goals and their future projects. Education could give a lot of opportunities to young people in Africa but they all do need some form of guidance or mentorship to support their career path. And this is exactly what Studentshubgh aims to do.
How did Studentshubgh get started?
Afia Bobia Amanfo: I grew up in Takoradi, the third biggest city in Ghana, West Africa. My biggest ambition while growing up was to someday become a publisher and own a National Newspaper, a dream I still hold on to. Little did I know at the time, the importance of good content and published works in shaping the future of young people. During a 1 year teaching position in a private High school in Takoradi, I experienced first hand, how lack of access to quality and educative information, opportunities and a qualified mentor can limit the great potential of young people.
With further research, I discovered that according to Harvard review study in a fortune 500 company, 70% of people are likely to achieve their goals when shared and monitored by a mentor and 84% of participants in the study said mentoring helped them to avoid costly mistakes.
Other research convinced me that a well structured mentoring program for young people in Ghana coupled with quality, educative content will highly reduce cases of school drop out, graduate unemployment, exams failure, teenage pregnancy among others. With these in mind, I started Studentshubgh, first as a Facebook page with whatsapp mentoring and then migrating to a an online media with a well structured mentoring program for College students in Anglophone Africa.
What kind of activities does Studentshubgh do?
A.B.A. : Studentshubgh is a revolutionary digital media and mentoring organisation. Our multi channel model utilizes a website, social media pages, digital magazine and more to offer content that is both educative & entertaining for young people. Our value offer is in the offering of inspiring content in multiple formats that covers the entire spectrum of student and post graduation life and becoming a direct connection between brands and students/ recent graduates.
Our mentoring wing offers a well packaged holistic mentoring program – The African Future Leaders Fellowship- which offers an online training program to college students on topics including Entrepreneurship, Financial Literacy, Career Development among others and connects these students to mentors for feedback and guidance.
How many people have you helped so far?
A.B.A. : In less than 2 years, Studentshubgh has offered mentoring to over 300 High School and Tertiary students. We have over 14,000 followers on Social Media and over 1500 registered users of our magazine and website. We look forward to increasing website subscription and offering more solutions and partnership for brands.
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What kind of impact do you have on your community?
A.B.A. : Studentshubgh enhances youth development and career success while reducing unemployment rate and equipping young people to succeed in their careers. In addition to the delivery of quality educational content to the youth, our mentoring program helps to train and prepare more young people in financial literacy, entrepreneurship among others thereby equipping them to become ethical future leaders of Africa.
What do you think needs to be done to have more women entrepreneurs and initiatives like yours in Africa?
A.B.A. : I believe more opportunities should be created for young women in business to receive mentoring and support from other more experienced businesswomen.
I believe many women in Africa have great ideas and a guiding hand from a female role model will go a long way to increase their potential for succeeding in their business ventures.
What are your thoughts about the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)? How do you think your company can give a positive contribution in that sense?
A.B.A. : I believe the sustainable development goals are important and allows various organisations and governments across the world to focus efforts and resources on solving some of the world’s greatest challenges. At Studentshubgh, our vision is in line with the SDG’s. Our vision is that ‘no young African is left behind’ and in that regard, we are working to promote quality education (SDG4) and reduce inequalities (SDG 10).
In the Cover Photo: Studentshubgh. Photo Credit: Studentshubgh.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The opinions expressed here by Impakter.com columnists are their own, not those of Impakter.com.
