This content is sponsored by Chivas 

Ask young Ghanaian social entrepreneur, John Armah, how he’s doing and he’ll reply, “I am blessed”.

This is a modest summing up of Armah’s incredible achievements.

Last year he was listed as one of Junior Chamber International Ghana’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons. He was also ranked 12th Most Influential Young Ghanaian by Avance Media, Ghana’s leading media and public relations agency. And currently the Board Chairman of Junior Achievement Ghana.

Armah is the CEO of the Orios Group, which aims to redefine wealth creation in Africa by identifying, training and supporting scalable, impact-based African start-ups.

Orios has trained over 20,000 youth and businesses in Ghana, formalized over 400 Businesses and has been a key advocate of championing policy in Ghana’s Start-up Ecosystem also actively matching Investors to Start-ups in Ghana while it raises the Orios Fund.

It focuses predominantly on early and growth stage businesses providing Patient capital, business development, Training and Advisory services to this market, a choice that Armah made critical of the various opportunities, talent, skill in the Ghanaian Economy championed by early stage firms.

Orios calls on social entrepreneurs to ‘elevate their hustle and redefine their dreams’ – then enables them to do so by providing specialised advisory and training services, as well as facilitating patient capital, via its three subsidiary companies – GCEEI, Trade Invest, and the Orios Capital.

Armah’s vision is to enhance the growth potential of start-ups in Ghana.

He uses an interesting approach to mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs, believing that young people who want to be social entrepreneurs should also have a passion for what they do. But beyond the Passion must build relevant Governance structures, Improve product development and move beyond PR to building relevant products that people actually want and will buy.

Instead of dispensing words of wisdom, he believes there are three key questions  aspiring Entrepreneurs should be asking themselves. “Who am I? What am I here for? Who am I doing this for?” Once they can answer these questions he believes they are on their way to building successful businesses or helping others build same.

“The underlying factor for success is having the skill and commitment beyond passion for the social good you want to achieve. That passion helps you determine if you want to be part of a business or not. To be a social entrepreneur you must be driven by motivation, passion, commitment, and have a sense of compassion,” he says.

With a strong Board and Shareholders made up of some astute recognized and celebrated business men in Ghana, a Board chaired by Mr. Kweku Awotwi, Former Head of Ghana’s Volta River Authority. John Armah and his team of 15 core staff are leading a charge to raise a fund to provide patient capital to some of Ghana’s most innovative early and growth stage start-ups.

This ethos led to Armah being featured on the CNBC series, Chivas, Win the Right Way.

The show profiles six social entrepreneurs from the continent. Its aim is twofold: to give even more visibility to this movement that uses business as a force for good; and to showcase a new generation of African entrepreneurs.

Series host, Audu Maikori, says Chivas, Win the Right Way celebrates those who not only build personal successes but who also positively impact their communities – a process he calls “profit with purpose”.

Armah echoes this sentiment: “We exist on this Earth to do good, and sometimes we profit from this good, which allows us to create vehicles to do more good.”

Catch episode two of Chivas, Win the Right Way on Wednesday November 2 to find about more about Armah and the work he is doing in Ghana.