The Centre for Gender and Communication Research (CGCR) at the University of Media, Arts and Communication (UniMAC) brought real-world enterprise into the classroom, this time through a hands-on Social Selling and Digital Marketing Workshop. The experiential exercise was held in partnership with the African Women Entrepreneurship Cooperative (AWEC) at the South Legon Campus.
To begin the session, the Director of the CGCR, Dr. Rosemary Obeng-Hinneh, warmly welcomed the students, walking them through the objectives of the day and introduced the guest speaker. In her remarks, she stressed why such skills matter for students long before they leave the university gates. “We cannot train communicators and creatives without giving them the tools to sell their own value,” Dr Obeng-Hinneh told the gathering. “Social selling and digital marketing are survival skills for anyone who wants to build a brand, a business, or a career in today’s economy.”
Moving on, the facilitator for the day, Yaa Osei Agyapong, founder of Obaa Essentials and a Certified Trainer with AWEC, started the workshop by asking the students what they knew about social selling, what practices they had tried and the fears or doubts holding them back from starting or scaling their businesses.
Drawing on responses from the students, she tailored her session to address their anxieties including the fear of judgment, uncertainty about pricing, and how to build trust online. She then moved into practical strategies students could apply to build an authentic online presence and differentiate their brands in the crowded social media market.
Ms. Agyapong was emphatic that skill-stacking is now a non-negotiable quality for graduates entering the job market. “The graduate of today cannot survive on one skill alone,” she said. “If you leave this university with just your degree and nothing else, you are competing on a very narrow lane. But if you add digital marketing and financial literacy to what you are studying, you multiply your options and your income.”
She encouraged students to see themselves as brands, noting that the same principles used to market a product apply to how they present themselves to future employers and clients.
To ground the training in real business practice, the session welcomed Mr. Faizah Ali, the Regional Channel Manager for MTN MoMo to hone in the discussions. Mr Ali spoke on the often-overlooked, but critical subject of payment systems and urged students to move beyond informal payment arrangements as their businesses grow.
“Many small businesses lose money and trust simply because they are not using the right payment channels,” he explained. “A dedicated merchant line gives your business a better structure, builds customer confidence, and gives you data you can use to track your own growth.” He walked students through the benefits of operating with dedicated merchant SIM cards rather than personal mobile money lines.
In a practical demonstration of MTN MoMo’s partnership with the workshop, merchant SIM cards were activated for interested student business owners immediately after the training.
Rounding off the workshop, Dr. Obeng-Hinneh delivered a vote of thanks, commending both AWEC and MTN MoMo for their partnership and commitment to student development. She urged students who have received merchant SIM cards to complete their registration promptly and to take full advantage of the tools and knowledge shared during the session.
It is noteworthy that the Social Selling and Digital Marketing Workshop is the latest in a series of practical, industry-linked programmes organised by the CGCR. This underscores UniMAC’s broader mission of bridging academic learning and empowering its students with the tools to turn ideas into sustainable income.