From thrift boutiques on Instagram to freelance graphic design, a new generation of University of Ghana students are treating entrepreneurship as both a financial necessity and a lifestyle.
Walk through the halls of Commonwealth Hall on a Tuesday afternoon and you will find Nana Adjoa running an Instagram Live sale from her phone while simultaneously attending a macroeconomics lecture. Her boutique, @ThriiiftAccra, has 18,000 followers and brings in enough to cover three months of her school fees — per sale event.
"My parents pay what they can. The rest is on me," says the 21-year-old Level 300 Economics student. "I started selling secondhand jeans from my wardrobe and it just grew." She now sources from Dubai, Turkey, and London, with a network of suppliers she manages entirely over WhatsApp.
Across campus, the pattern repeats. Kofi Asare, a Computer Science student, runs a freelance design business under the name Twig Studio, landing clients in the UK and Canada through Fiverr and LinkedIn. Emmanuel Quartey sells homemade peanut butter at Volta Hall under the brand Nkatie Gold, turning over GHS 3,000 a week during exam season.
UG's Students Representative Council estimates that more than 40% of students on campus are running some form of income-generating activity alongside their studies — up from an estimated 15% five years ago. The shift is driven partly by economic pressure and partly, students say, by a genuine shift in how their generation views work.
"My older sister finished school and waited for a job. I don't think like that," says Nana Adjoa. "I want to build something. The degree is for backup." Her next goal: a physical pop-up store in Osu by graduation.
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Abena Mensah
Abena is a final-year student at the University of Ghana who covers campus culture, student politics, and the youth experience across Ghana's universities.