We will eliminate impediments to business growth – Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has assured entrepreneurs and the business community of his administration’s determination to eliminate the impediment to business growth to accelerate Ghana’s economic development.
According to the President, the sector holds the key to solving the country’s numerous economic issues and the consequent hike in unemployment.
He stated emphatically that it was in the interest of stakeholders, that businesses grow and generate wealth to improve Ghana’s economic fortunes and the quality of life of the people.
“It is in all our interests that those who set up ventures and take business risks are able to generate wealth.
“This is the sector that must grow, for it is the sector that will provide the cure for our unemployment crisis,” he said on Monday at the opening of the International Conference on Entrepreneurship, Business and Technology, organised by the Methodist University College Ghana, in Accra.
“A business venture might employ three or twenty or four hundred people, but, if it flourishes, we can be sure that our aspirations for a prosperous Ghana are becoming a reality.”
President Akufo-Addo noted that successful economies had been dependent on entrepreneurs running successful businesses, saying, “It is time to take entrepreneurship seriously”.
He said the private sector was the undisputed instrument of growth and his administration would leverage on entrepreneurship, business and technology to bolster Ghana’s economy.
He said the recent ‘Asempa Budget’, “has shown that my government is serious about its part of the bargain and is committed to strengthening business and the private sector”.
President Akufo-Addo raised issues with the curricula of educational institutions, insisting that universities should align their curriculum with present day realities.
He said “more and more these days across the globe, the value of a university is measured by how easily its graduates find jobs. This is a challenge that our own universities must face”.
“There is work to be done on all sides, if we are to achieve our goals; work by government, work by the educational institutions and work by the business community,” he said.
The President also urged businesses to employ the use of technology in the running of their businesses as it “formalises their operations without much cost.
“It is time to utilise them to the full, instead of the one-upmanship gadgets they tend to be currently. A smart phone can enable a market woman decide when the best time is to make the planned trip to the orange farm for her purchases, because she can see the state of the oranges from her home or office 200 kilometers away.
“That same smart phone would hold all the records of her previous transactions and enable her conduct her banking.
The possibilities are endless and we have the opportunity to make rapid progress, with the aid of technology to create wealth,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo called on industry and universities to develop partnerships to ensure that the next generation of business leaders were appropriately trained.
He said: “Our educational institutions need to know, at first hand, what is happening in industry and train their students accordingly. This is a fundamental imperative if we are to achieve best practice and create jobs. We ignore the teachings of two of the most powerful economies of our era, the German and the Chinese, to our cost.”
President Akufo-Addo said he was pleased that the Methodist University College Ghana, through its Centre for Entrepreneurship Education, Research and Training , had developed programmes aimed at developing skills for the business community, and creating entrepreneurial managers for corporate, as well as for individual businesses.
“It is equally good to learn that the entrepreneurship training the University College offered national service personnel in the Brong- Ahafo Region in 2014, as part of the University’s social responsibility and extension services, is turning out to be a success.
“I would want such a programme to be rolled out nationally to affect a greater number of service personnel. The new leadership of the National Service Scheme will be alerted to the potential of this programme,” he said.
Source: GNA