Echoes of a mother’s wisdom: Lessons of an encounter in lower Manya Krobo about youth and enterprise development

By Constance Gbedzo

In April 2023, I journeyed into the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly, driven by a singular, urgent mission; to catalyze economic independence through community youth entrepreneurship development. Stepping into Odumasi Krobo, a landscape vibrant with potential yet challenged by systemic youth underemployment, the goal was to equip young minds with the practical frameworks and strategic grit necessary to build sustainable enterprises from scratch.

It was within the energetic walls of this training program, designed to challenge conventional mindsets and spark a grassroots economic revival, that I encountered a narrative that perfectly mirrored the very essence of the workshop.

Among the participants was a local public servant whose presence was quiet but commanding, a social welfare officer who did not just understand the theory of community upliftment, but lived it. Her name is Madam Theresa Mamle Nartey, and listening to her extraordinary evolution from a six-year-old child vendor to an academically decorated administrative professional revealed that the ultimate blueprint for youth enterprise was already unfolding right within the municipality.

The story of Theresa is a profound testament to the power of early enterprise, maternal wisdom, and an unyielding commitment to self-actualization. Born and raised in Odumasi Krobo, within the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly, Theresa’s trajectory defies the conventional timelines of entrepreneurship. Her journey began not in a lecture hall or a corporate boardroom, but along the bustling highway of her hometown at the tender age of six, where she sold fruits to passing travelers.

By the time she was ten, her portfolio had expanded to vending koko and white porridge within her neighborhood. In a community where young girls frequently succumbed to the vulnerabilities of loitering and unstructured idleness, Theresa was anchored by a different philosophy, gifted to her by her mother.

Her mother’s foundational counsel, that it was infinitely better for a young girl to engage in meaningful enterprise than to wander aimlessly, became the bedrock of Theresa’s character. Under this guidance, she navigated the vibrant and dense spaces of the Odumasi main market, weaving through traders from all walks of life, absorbing the raw mechanics of commerce, negotiation, and resilience.

What makes Theresa’s narrative remarkably unique is that her commercial drive did not come at the expense of her intellect; rather, they fueled each other. She was an academically exceptional student. By age fifteen, she possessed the maturity and financial acumen to travel independently to the chaotic, fast-paced hub of Makola Market in Accra, executing large-scale commercial shopping for her mother’s business.

This rare blend of academic brilliance and market grit followed her as she completed her senior high education at the turn of the millennium in the year 2000. Inspired by her father, an ardent and dedicated educationist, Theresa chose to pursue teaching, enrolling in the prestigious Mount Mary College of Education.

Yet, the lecture halls did not tame her entrepreneurial spirit. Throughout her time at the training college, she operated a thriving side business selling shito and other provisions to her peers. Remarkably, this trade was born out of pure passion and strategic foresight rather than financial desperation; her parents fully covered her tuition and school provisions. Instead of spending her profits, Theresa channeled her earnings back home, accumulating substantial wealth under the careful, trustworthy safekeeping of her mother.

This financial discipline and academic perseverance laid the groundwork for her subsequent intellectual pursuits. After earning her Certificate ‘A’ from Mount Mary, she advanced to the University of Education, Winneba, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Education and Social Studies, and later culminated her academic journey at the premier University of Ghana, where she earned an MPhil in Public Administration.

Today, Theresa serves with distinction as a Social Welfare officer within the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly, deploying her deep understanding of human development and administration to uplift her community. It was in this very professional capacity, while participating in a community youth entrepreneurship development program in April 2023, that her incredible story came to light, serving as a living blueprint for the next generation of Ghanaian youth.

Even as a established public servant, Theresa has never abandoned the hearth of her upbringing. She has systematically scaled the catering business she built from scratch into a formidable hospitality enterprise. Today, her catering outfit is a dominant force, supplying major marriage ceremonies, corporate events, state funerals, and church programs not only within her local municipality but across the entire Eastern and Greater Accra Regions.

Despite the scale of her current operations, Theresa remains fiercely connected to her roots, maintaining food vending sheds across the municipality and continuing to serve the local markets and coastal fishing communities that shaped her early understanding of trade. At the heart of this expansive enterprise development lies a timeless truth: the transformative impact of a mother’s training and unwavering support.

Theresa Mamle Nartey stands as a brilliant paradigm of how early entrepreneurial exposure, balanced with high academic achievement and rooted in maternal guidance, can create a modern African leader who seamlessly bridges the gap between state administration and grassroots enterprise.

Ultimately, Theresa’s life stands as a powerful masterclass in rewriting the traditional narratives of career and commerce in Ghana. For the youth, her journey obliterates the myth that success must wait for a formal certificate or a capital windfall, rather, Theresa has proven that enterprise is a mindset born of discipline, small beginnings, and the willingness to utilize whatever resource is at hand.

For her colleagues within the public sector, she is a striking example of the modern, entrepreneurial public servant, proving that dedication to state bureaucracy does not require the burial of one’s personal creative and commercial ambitions.

By seamlessly balancing the structural responsibilities of a social welfare officer with the dynamic demands of a regional catering enterprise, Theresa demonstrates that public service and private enterprise can harmoniously coexist to drive regional economic growth. Her story leaves us with a compelling blueprint: when early motherly guidance is matched with academic excellence and an unyielding work ethic, the result is an unstoppable force of community transformation that lights the way for an entire generation.

The writer is an Enterprise Development and Risk Expert)

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