Comrade Steven Nhyira Odarteifio enters NDC youth race with call to turn political power into economic opportunity

Comrade Steven Nhyira Odarteifio has declared his candidature for National Youth Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), pledging to help President John Dramani Mahama and his government turn the political mandate entrusted to the party by Ghanaians into broader economic opportunity, dignity and hope for the country’s young people.

The declaration comes with a conviction that the NDC’s return to government under President Mahama represents more than a change of administration. It is an opportunity to renew the social contract with a generation of young Ghanaians who voted for a government that promised jobs, skills, enterprise and a more inclusive economy.

Comrade Odarteifio said the NDC Youth Wing must become a powerful bridge between the opportunities being created by the Mahama administration and the millions of young people who need access to them.

Programs such as Adwumawura, the National Apprenticeship Programme and One Million Coders, he said, demonstrate the government’s determination to equip young Ghanaians for a changing economy. The task now is to ensure that these interventions reach the people for whom they were designed.

“This candidature is rooted not in ambition, but in obligation. Millions of young Ghanaians placed their faith in President Mahama and the NDC because they believed in a Ghana of opportunity and dignity. Our responsibility is to make that faith count,” Comrade Odarteifio said.

It was greeted with rapturous applause, singing, dancing and chants from enthusiastic supporters gathered for the occasion, including many of his constituents. The charged atmosphere reflected the excitement surrounding his entry into the contest, with supporters repeatedly cheering his name and expressing confidence in his ability to bring a new energy and sense of purpose to the NDC Youth Wing.

He added that the Youth Wing must move beyond election-time mobilisation and become an enduring vehicle for connecting young people to capital, skills, enterprise, agriculture, technology and markets.

“We need a Youth Wing that does not only mobilises young people for political power, but mobilises opportunity between elections. We must help convert the political power entrusted to the NDC into economic opportunity for the young people of Ghana,” he said.

Comrade Odarteifio said his vision is to help the Youth Wing contribute to the economic empowerment of at least one million additional young Ghanaians before the end of President Mahama’s administration, while strengthening the party’s grassroots structures and giving a new generation of members a meaningful stake in Ghana’s economic transformation.

A central pillar of his vision is agriculture, which he believes can become one of the country’s most powerful engines of youth employment, enterprise and industrialisation.

He is also the brain behind the Ghana Agricultural Fund for Education and Transformation (GAFET), an initiative targeting a GH¢100 million endowment by December 2028 to finance agricultural education and help address the skills gap threatening the sector’s long-term transformation.

GAFET reflects his broader conviction that Ghana’s agricultural transformation cannot be sustained without investing in the people, technical capabilities and institutions that will drive it.

Comrade Odarteifio said the NDC must continue to draw strength from the tradition established by its great political figures while responding to the aspirations of a new generation.

He paid tribute to the legacies of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, President John Evans Atta Mills and President John Dramani Mahama, describing their political traditions as part of a continuum of service, social justice, national development and opportunity.

He particularly praised President Mahama’s leadership and the government’s efforts to restore economic stability while creating new pathways for young people.

“The NDC has always been at its strongest when it has given ordinary people a reason to believe that politics can improve their lives. President Mahama has given this generation a renewed reason to believe in the possibilities of our country. Our duty as young people is to organise, serve and help turn that promise into reality,” he said.

Comrade Odarteifio said the Youth Wing must also help build a political culture in which a person’s ideas, character, service and ability to deliver matter more than wealth, connections or political visibility.

He said the future of the party cannot be one in which young people must first become wealthy or politically connected before their voices are heard.

“We must build an NDC where a young person with ideas, character, service and a record of impact can rise. That is the politics we owe the next generation,” he said.

A record of service

Comrade Odarteifio brings more than a decade of experience spanning investment banking, management consulting, agribusiness, agrifinance, development finance and food systems.

His career began as an investment analyst at Goldman Sachs in London, before he moved into development and public-sector work, including roles involving agribusiness and agrifinance at the Ministry of Finance and the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA).

He also served as Head of Food Systems at the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Ghana, where he coordinated the deployment of approximately US$40 million in donor funding to strengthen food and nutrition security.

His development work has included operationalising 50,000 acres of agricultural land under the Ghana CARES Agricultural Programme, helping secure US$6.1 million from the Mastercard Foundation for smallholder production financing and contributing to the mobilisation of US$80 million in Ministry of Finance infrastructure support for economic enclaves across three regions.

The interventions have helped create opportunities and improve livelihoods for more than 100,000 young Ghanaians, while his work has also covered agricultural equipment deployment, local manufacturing of agricultural machinery, support for women processors and young farmers, and strengthening agricultural education.

It is this combination of policy, finance, enterprise and grassroots development that Comrade Odarteifio says he intends to bring to the leadership of the NDC Youth Wing.

He said the contest is ultimately about what kind of party the NDC wants to become and what kind of Ghana it wants to build for the generation now coming of age.

“To every young comrade who feels unseen, to every foot soldier who feels forgotten, to every unemployed graduate, to every struggling entrepreneur and to every young person who has ever been told to wait their turn, I say this: your future cannot be chained to somebody else’s definition of when you are ready,” he said.

“Your readiness must be judged by your ideas, your service, your character, your impact and your ability to deliver,” he added.

Comrade Odarteifio said his candidature would seek to support President Mahama’s government, strengthen the NDC’s grassroots base and help build a Youth Wing capable of winning the confidence of young people through tangible economic impact.

“If we empower our youth, we will convince every Ghanaian to keep believing in the NDC and help secure a new generation of progressive leadership for our country,” he said.

Comrade Odarteifio is expected to formally file his nomination ahead of the NDC’s upcoming Youth Wing congress.

About Comrade Steven Nhyira Odarteifio

Comrade Steven Nhyira Odarteifio is a development finance, agribusiness and food systems specialist with more than a decade of experience spanning investment banking, management consulting, public-sector development and agricultural transformation.

He is a former research analyst at Goldman Sachs and has worked with the Ministry of Finance, the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) and The Whitaker Group. He currently serves as Head of Food Systems at the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Ghana.

A graduate of Ashesi University with a background in Computer Science, he has worked across agricultural enclave development, agrifinance, youth economic empowerment and food systems. His interventions have helped create opportunities and improve livelihoods for more than 100,000 young Ghanaians.