GRi Business, Economics
& Finance 26 - 09 - 2003
Entrepreneurs asked to go into partnership
GEA calls for support for NHIS
Help us to implement a successful NHIS - Aliu asks employers
Show political commitment to Golden Age of Business to succeed
Entrepreneurs asked to go into partnership
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 26 September 2003 - Mr Kwadwo Filson, Head of Research of the Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC), has asked Ghanaian entrepreneurs to go into partnership so that they could obtain large capital bases for investment.
He also advised them to move away from outdate business practices and to apply modern production, trade and commence techniques if they were to compete favourably on the international market.
Mr Filson was speaking at the launch of the Ghana Investment Forum for the northern sector of the country, organised by the GIPC and the United Nations Development Organisation (UNIDO) in Kumasi on Thursday.
The forum was aimed at building partnership between local Ghanaian entrepreneurs and foreign investors to strengthen the internal capacity of business.
Mr Filson said: "For Ghanaian business to grow and compete favourably on the international level, it is necessary for them to merge to be able to pool resources for production since this is the trend of modern day business".
He observed that globalisation and market liberalisation had made it compelling for indigenous enterprises to compete internationally within their domestic market.
Mr Filson said: "We are all aware of the embedded weakness in small manufacturing establishments and the typical indigenous enterprise does not have the advantage to compete even on its own domestic market".
He stated that international business linkages, which could result in strengthening the internal capacity of enterprises, should be seen as short cut to international competitiveness.
Mr S.K. Boafo, Ashanti Regional Minister, said the government was ready to support the GIPC/UNIDO initiative, which gave meaning to the policy of making the private sector the real engine of growth.
He said due to unfair world market prices, resulting in low returns on Ghana's traditional exports, the country was now was gradually diverting attention from traditional to non-traditional exports.
Mr Boafo, therefore, expressed hope that the forum would strengthen trade partnership and co-operation among Ghanaian business executives and entrepreneurs and the business community in other countries.
He said the launch of the forum in the northern sector was, therefore, an
indication of government's determination to bring opportunities to businesses
located in places other than the national capital.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
GEA calls for support for NHIS
Accra (Greater Accra) 26 September 2003 - Mr. Ato Ampiah, President of the Ghana Employers Association (GEA) on Thursday appealed to stakeholders involved the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and employees and workers to act with restraint and flexibility to make the scheme a reality.
He said, "there is no doubt that the interface would bring its problems and misunderstanding, but that is the nature of every active human institution. Therefore, I wish that the use of tri and bipartisan instruments could be used to resolve the matter."
The National Health Insurance Scheme Bill has been met with criticism from some minority parties, especially the NDC as well as the Trade Union Congress (TUC), which has rejected the government's initiative to support the scheme with two-and- a half percent of workers contribution to the SSNIT Pension Scheme.
Mr Ampiah was delivering his address at the 43rd Annual General Meeting of the GEA said the GEA contributed to the recently passed NHIS Law by sending memoranda to the Ministry of Health following several meetings with its members to solicit their views.
"The Association's intervention was timely and resulted in the deletion of some compulsory levies on employers that were part of the Bill," he said.
He, however, cautioned workers should rather be concerned about the effect of HIV/AIDS on the SSNIT Pension Scheme as workers would die prematurely in an epidemic and abnormally increase claims.
Mr Ampiah said: "HIV/AIDS is a major threat to industrial organizations and businesses in terms of loss of manpower, absenteeism, health expenditure, loss of skills and reduced productivity.
"Businesses must, therefore, respond to this pandemic as a standard business practice-A healthy worker is a productive worker and a responsible employer seeks the employee's mental, social, and physical well-being."
Vice President Aliu Mahama, who opened the meeting, said the government was committed to ensuring that Ghanaians had access to quality health care, hence the National Health Insurance Law.
He asked the employers to study the provisions of the law and help in
educating workers on it's positive aspect to encourage active participation in
the scheme.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Help us to implement a successful NHIS - Aliu asks employers
Accra (Greater Accra) 26 September 2003 - Vice President Aliu Mahama on Thursday urged the Ghana Employers Association (GEA) to partner with the government in the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to ensure that it covers the entire society.
He said: "Government is committed to ensuring that every Ghanaian has access to quality health care to make them fit to work. It is in this regard that the National Health insurance Law was passed to provide the framework for an effective operation of a National Health insurance Scheme."
Vice President Mahama, who was speaking at a ceremony in Accra to open the 43rd Annual General Meeting of the GEA stressed that only a healthy workforce could generate the increased productivity that all Ghanaians were seeking, adding that the NHIS would facilitate the process. He also urged the employers to invest directly in the communities they operate as their corporate social responsibility.
"It is important to understand that even though traditionally government is responsible for addressing issues on education, health, crime and even unemployment, the business community also has a responsibility to improve the communities in which they do business," he said. "Ghanaian companies must adhere not only to the letter of the law, but also the spirit of it."
Vice President Mahama reiterated the government's determination to provide the requisite structures and incentives to make businesses, which it considers the pulse of the economy, thrive. However, he said, the efforts would not achieve the desired results if employers failed to embrace good corporate governance practices.
He mentioned deficient legal and regulatory systems, inconsistent auditing standards, lack of transparency, inefficient board of directors, lack of respects for the rights of stakeholders and conflicts at the enterprise level as issues that should be addressed to enhance productivity.
Vice President Mahama stressed that it was important for enterprises to aspire for increased productivity, saying, "you cannot expect to continue to be in business if you do not give productivity improvement the necessary attention it deserves."
Enterprises, he said, must, therefore, develop suitable productivity measurement systems to help them to achieve sustainable balanced growth and development that would boost the national socio-economic growth and create jobs and wealth.
He also urged enterprises to develop HIV/AIDS prevention and care programmes for their workforce as the disease threatens industrial stability and growth.
Alhaji Mahama cautioned: "The epidemic cuts the supply of labour and threatens the livelihoods of many workers and those who depend on them. The size of the labour force in 32 African countries would be between five percent and 35 percent smaller by the year 2020 than it would have been without HIV/AIDS.
Vice President Mahama later launched a five-year strategic plan of the GEA, which seeks to support and promote the economic and social interests of its members and their organisations through the provision of top quality advisory, consultancy and advocacy services.
The services will cover labour relations, human resource management and organizational development to enhance flexibility, productivity and competitiveness and in a dynamic business environment.
Mr Yaw Barimah, Minister of Manpower Development and Employment, urged the employers to constantly upgrade their human resource and technological base to meet changing demands.
"You cannot use yesterday's tools to do today's work and expect to be in business tomorrow," he said. Mr Barimah advised them to guard against rancour and bickering, which often resulted in strikes and disrupts productivity as they undermine industrial growth.
He told them to respect the International Labour Organisation's policy on "Decent Work", which places human resource development at the nucleus of enterprises.
Mr Ishmael Ashietey, Minister of State at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Presidential Special Initiatives, urged them to take advantage of the interventions and strategies being pursued by the government to make trade and industry competitive at the local and international levels.
These include tariffs and non-tariff measures aimed at promoting manufacturing activities and the domestic-market oriented and industrialisation programme targeted at producing locally 70 percent of non petroleum government imports and 50 per cent of imported processed foods and agricultural products.
Mr Ashietey urged them to contribute toward the formulation of trade policies and programmes by submitting memos to relevant bodies to make them responsive to their needs.
Giving the 2002 annual report, Mr Ato Ampiah, President of GEA, highlighted the Association's involvement in the formulation of the NHIS Bill, new End of Service Benefit, fixing of the current Daily Minimum Wage, the establishment of the West African Federation of Employers, among other activities.
On the NHIS, Mr Ampiah said it was encouraging that the country as a whole had accepted the scheme in principle, adding that it was natural that its transition from the concept to reality would carry teething problems.
He, therefore, called on stakeholders to act with restraint and flexibility to ensure a successful implementation. Mr Ampiah expressed regret that some employees were asking for the implementation of the ESB to take retrospective effect from 1991.
"This was not the spirit of our accord to introduce the scheme," he said. "I, therefore, call on all those with positions bordering on retrospective effect to reconsider their stand in the mutual interest of tripartism.
Mrs Cecilia Bannerman, immediate past Minister responsible for employment,
her predecessor, Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni and Mrs Mary Chinnery-Hesse, one-time
Deputy-Director General of ILO were honoured for their contribution to
industrial growth and harmony.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Show political commitment to Golden Age of Business to succeed
Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 26 September 2003 - Mr Akenten Appiah-Menka, an industrialist, has called for political commitment towards the declaration of the Golden Age of Business. He noted that the declaration will only remain food for thought and "not food for the stomach" if it was not backed by political commitment.
Speaking at the fifth regional annual general meeting of the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo branch of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) in Kumasi on Thursday, Mr Appiah-Menka said there was the need to put in place institutional structures to make the declaration succeed.
One of the fundamental things needed from the government is for it to believe in it, practice it and not merely "sing it," he said. Mr Appiah-Menka said the government's focus should be on support for local industries to establish and grow instead of the uncontrolled trade liberalisation.
He noted that the road to success in the private sector is very rough and called on the banks to facilitate the sector. Mr Appiah-Menka expressed regret that presently in Ghana, the banks are gradually killing the industries with high interest rates and downright refusal to assist them.
One other areas of concern, he said, was market for locally manufactured goods noting that the Ghana market was too small for the goods and called for efforts to exploit the ECOWAS market.
He called for a change of perception towards made-in-Ghana goods and charged politicians to lead the crusade to patronise locally manufactured goods instead of condemning them as inferior.
Mr David Darko-Mensah, Regional Chairman of the AGI, noted that the collateral being demanded by the banks for loans were virtually unavailable especially for the micro, cottage and small industries, adding, "even where the collateral can be secured, administrative bottlenecks discourage young entrepreneurs from pursuing the loans."
He mentioned high utility tariffs, which lead to high cost of production and
the cumulative impact of taxes and levies on production as factors that make
locally manufactured goods very expensive on the international market.
GRi…/
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com