In an era where the Youth are taking charge of their affairs; this paradigm shift creates an enabling environment for Young Entrepreneurs and Youth-led Businesses to thrive.

With the aspirations to foster closer bilateral relations between Ghana and Russia and higher institutions taking into consideration the interests of both institutions in promoting mutual benefit cooperation in the fields of education, research and culture, HIRED Consult and Saint-Petersburg State Agrarian University (SPbSAU) signs a 5-year Cooperation Agreement on the success of the recently held St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) 2021.

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is a unique event in the world of business and economics held under the auspices of the President of the Russian Federation. In its 24th season, this year was held from June 2-5 in strict accordance with health and safety measures carefully drawn up by the Organizing Committee in line with the WHO recommendations with delegates from over 100 countries and 13,500 in attendance.

With this cooperation agreement, young Ghanaians have the opportunity of a full scholarship to study in the areas of Agriculture in Russia facilitated through HIRED Consult and State Agencies. Mr. John Aggrey is the Founder and CEO of HIRED Consult. HIRED Consult is a youth-led social enterprise with expertise in management and consultancy focused on churning ideas into sustainable and scalable projects through strategy, operations, transformation, and digital delivery across board.

At the opening SPIEF 2021 session of Friends for Leadership, Mr. Aggrey’s speech, “We MUST move from the "table of discussion to the table of action. We are either the table or used as the menu and as youth, our choice is "We are THE TABLE" and which centred on contributions to safe, affordable and nutritious food for a transformative Food Systems through sustainable, responsible consumption and production in addressing lifestyle, food security, climate change, malnutrition, and biodiversity was well received among dignitaries and Russian State Representatives, particularly the Saint-Petersburg State Agrarian University (SPbSAU) who held closed door meeting with this young Ghanaian Social Intrapreneur.

Also in attendance at SPIEF 2021 was H.E. Paul Kwaw Cudjoe Acting Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Ghana in Russia. He interacted with some African participants at the forum; “Ghana and Russia have friendly and close bilateral relationship over the years and still continues to enjoy good relations. This agreement reflects it and attest that Ghana is blessed with young talents who always show patriotism by raising the flag higher wherever they find themselves.” According to him, his office will liaise with HIRED Consult, and State Agencies in Ghana to make this cooperation agreement run smoothly and effectively. H. E Paul Kwaw Cudjoe lauded Mr. Aggrey for this great achievement.

Founded in 1904, St. Petersburg State Agrarian University is a non-profit public higher-education institution officially recognized by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and offers both undergraduate, masters programs and research works of major science fields (agrobiological, agroengineering, agroeconomic).

The Cooperation Agreement was signed by John Aggrey, Founder and CEO of HIRED Consult (Ghana) and Vitalii Morozov, Rector Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education Saint-Petersburg State Agrarian University (SPbSAU) and witnessed by Nadezhda Tcyganova, Vice-Rector for Research, Innovation and International Affairs.

“In the new realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Roscongress Foundation was the first to provide a platform for our Friends for Leadership community to meet and work in person. Many participants decided to come to St. Petersburg with a great enthusiasm to promote their projects, sign cooperation agreements and to find new partners, like-minded people and investors. We can say with confidence that SPIEF 2021 was even more eventful for the work of our organization, with the results we have witnessed here," said Dr. Roman Chukov, Founding Member of Friends for Leadership, Adviser to the CEO of the Roscongress Foundation on Youth Policy and Chair of the Board of the Centre for International Promotion Fund.

Friends for Leadership is an international network of the next generation leaders and entrepreneurs, who share the best SDGs practices and working solutions to bring them into effect to our local communities globally.