Fourth CEO Summit opens in Accra
The Fourth Business Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) Summit opened in Accra on Monday to explore the capacity of the ongoing technological revolution to transform the Ghanaian economy.
The two-day Summit, which attracted more than 400 CEOs from across Africa, is being hosted by the Ghana CEO Network on the theme: “The Futuristic Economy: Technology-Driven Future of Business and Governance for Economic Transformation”.
The event was opened by the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, with keynote addresses from various speakers including Dr Ernest K. Yedu Addison, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
Dr Addison commended the Network for sustaining such a forum for the fourth time, saying it provided the leadership of the business community with an important platform to discuss key issues and practical strategies to enhance their operations for effective service delivery and good governance.
He underscored the importance of technology to economic development, saying it was for that reason that the BoG’s had strengthened its collaboration with the Communication Sector to improve service quality, ensure efficiency and reduce the crime rate in the financial sector.
He applauded the telecommunications industry for accepting the challenge to change the face of banking in Ghana by deploying an efficient technology to ensure inter-mobile money transfer applications for effective transaction and increased revenue mobilisation.
Dr Addison spoke about the various reforms that were currently being pursued by the BoG to strengthen its operations and streamline the financial sector through, among other things, tracking and eliminating cyber-crimes to boost the confidence of clients.
He said the progress made, notwithstanding, certain challenges such as the lengthy and delayed court processes as well as the poor culture of documentation by some entities were slowing down efforts to retrieve funds (loans) owed to some financial institutions.
Dr Addison called for fair and efficient judicial processes to deal swiftly with prosecutions.
He said the BoG would continue to put in place the required measures to ensure a robust financial sector driven by technology to ensure good governance and accountability to ensure economic transformation.
Mr Ernest De-Graft Egyir, the Chief Executive Officer, Ghana CEO Network, said the discussion had become necessary because the world of business and governance was at the threshold of transformation, driven by emerging technologies.
“The current pace of change, whiles fast, is likely to be slower than the pace of change in the future. Our lives are being shaken to the very core by technological change, with the tech revolution transforming economies as never before,” he said.
He indicated that the global economy was now in the fourth industrial revolution where innovation and technology were the main vehicles by which transformation and development were being achieved.
He said Ghana was on the fast-track to development, which was being propelled by a partnership between the Government and the private sector.
Mr Egyir said participants would, at the two-day event, probe into issues such as the effect of the technology revolution in revitalising Ghana’s economic growth, and discuss the kind of policies that were needed in line with the new global dynamics.
He said as business leaders, they needed to consider what changes would have an impact on their activities and make the preparations needed to take advantage of those changes.
The level of transformation required extreme leadership skills with strong vision, he added.
Source: GNA