Ghanaian CEOs will cooporate

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…If Government is more transparent

By Cecil MENSAH

A group of Ghanaian Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in the private sector, at a summit attended by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has called for transparency in the dealings of government to ensure a performance-driven economy.

According to the CEOs, they would like the government to declare “a new age of enlightenment defined by vision, passion, values, patriotism and the national interest to create an ethical, transparent, professional, digital, open and performance-driven economy in the country.”

Moses Kwesi Baiden Jnr, CEO of Margins Group, led the call at the CEOs summit in Accra when he delivered a paper on the topic “Digital Innovation Economy for Business Growth:  A Dialogue on How Business and Government Can Work Together to Foster Innovation and Expand Opportunities.’’

The two-day CEOs summit brought together the finest business leaders in the private business sector of the Ghanaian economy.

Kwesi Baiden Jnr was cocksure an open environment will promote persons who are capable, knowledgeable, passionate, hardworking and diligent, as well as, catalyse the pursuit of efficiency and productivity. This will in turn attract the brightest and best to Ghana, keeping them in Ghana to give birth to the great digital entrepreneurs of today and tomorrow.

“We have to expand our economy and to move it to the first world, using policy, law and education to create the environment and cultivate the minds of our children and adolescent minds with the right content, discipline and orientation to be the fuel that will propel us into the vanguard of the fourth Industrial revolution; the digital revolution.”

He said for the CEOs, one of the most significant statements that the President has made is that his government is open for business and to promote the private sector.

According to him, the President’s proclamation that public service is public service, and people wanting to make money should join the private sector and not his government, is new, fresh and very significant.

He was of the view that, an economy that is based on ‘’poli-trepreneurs and tender-preneurs’ will not create any lasting value and will in the end leave a legacy of penury for the younger generation.

He argued that digitally constrained economies receive the least benefit, largely because they have yet to establish an Information Communications Technology (ICT) ecosystem that can capitalize on the benefits of digitization.

“Alas! Ghana is classified as a digitally constrained economy, but we can change this to become a world leader in 10 years.

“It is only an environment that promotes the capable rather than the preferred that will bring lasting wealth to this generation and the generations yet unborn and make our country great and strong.”

He called on the government to strive to provide this environment or risk missing the digital revolution.

“Let us not create a Ghana in which any initiative that is not pre-authorised never sees the light of day.”

Role of private sector

He maintained that if the laws and the actions of the three arms of government are consistent with the letter and spirit of the Constitution and the national interest is pursued to create the environment for businesses to collaborate and compete, then the private sector will strive.

“If the best businesses are rewarded by the market, and the public purse is protected and vulnerable groups are given a safety net by the state, in such an environment the private sector will naturally expand.

“It will play its natural role of taking advantage of this digital age because it will focus and strive for excellence, performance competitiveness and hard work and productivity will follow naturally,” he assured.

He added that the private sector should not, and will not, be looking for hand-outs from government as the Public-Private Dialogue is critical to the exploitation of the digitized economy is regular collaboration between business sector and the government.

“The lack of a serious Public-Private Dialogue over the past 60 years to shape and deliver the economic transformation vision for the country has been an unacceptable omission.

“Mr. President, your presence here gives us hope and affirms the seriousness that you attach to the role of the private sector and the importance of a public-private dialogue to advance our country in creating wealth, expanding our economy and lifting millions out of poverty.

“Imagine a $100 billion company domiciled in Ghana, that creates jobs for thousands of employees; a law-abiding corporate, able to lock horns with global behemoths.

“This is not a fantasy; this is the new reality where innovation is not restrained by unaffordable capital cost. The forth revolution is here, it is the age of digitization.

“Is a new reality in which a kid from Nima can hone his knowledge and skills to achieve global pre-eminence.

“This fourth time, we have run out of reasons to fail. Mr. President, you have asked us not to be spectators in the governance of our country and we hear you.

“We cannot in this fourth industrial revolution be spectators or sit by to import knowledge and systems wholesale without Ghanaian industry and business’ significant participation.

“Our companies must invest in knowledge in this fourth revolution to grow wealth here in Ghana and keep it here, and our government must create the environment to promote our companies, based on merit and performance,” he noted.

Writer’s e-mail: cecilm@businessdayghana.com

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