The month-long programme, featuring themed events and on-air series, is a step-up on the station’s growing business content niche.  Mr Ibrahim Awal Mohammed, Minister of Business Development, who launched the festival in Accra on Thursday, commended Citi for the initiative and urged other media outlets to emulate it.

He noted that while the media was becoming increasingly relevant in the socio-economic development of Ghana, it was important for media organisations to go beyond politics to support government in the business sector.

“Please go beyond the politics and do business with us; partner government, partner businesses to make Ghana a more attractive business destination,” he said.  He also urged Citi to also focus on start-ups as part of the topics to be discussed during the festival.

“Small businesses constitute over 90 per cent of businesses in Ghana but the rate of failure is very high,” he said, explaining that 75 per cent of all businesses do not grow beyond three years while those which do, do not grow beyond 10 years.Mr Mohammed said start-ups were the bedrock of all businesses around the world, and about 75 per cent of them contributed to Ghana’s GDP and urged the media to educate the public, especially youth on the opportunities in the sector in spite of the risks.

“Businesses must dare to look beyond the risks to the opportunities to grow” he stated.

He noted the importance of leverage the social capital in businesses, including contacts and network to build their businesses and also to be innovative in making their businesses competitive.

Mr Bernard Avle, Director of Radio Programming at Citi FM, said the Citi Business Festival was the culmination 10 years of the station’s efforts to fill a niche market in business programming, which was not being served at the time.The festival, he said, was to extend its services beyond on-air audience to involve various publics through events.

“Radio, for us, is a tool for social change, not just a business for money making, radio is a viable tool for engaging people to change the way they think and behave,” he said. “We can’t develop our country if we don’t value business as what it takes to change the nation,” he said.

He said it was not politics that change countries but business thus the need for highlighting business and ideas on radio.The Festival, which is sponsored by MTN Business and Premium Bank, will cover five thematic areas, including financial inclusion, housing and real estate, Foreign Direct Investment, Innovation and tourism, at various events and will also address 16 topics on air throughout the month.

Mr Yofi Grant, Chief Executive of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), also commended Citi for the festival, saying government and the GIPC was committed to not doing Business as usual, but in a way that will change the fortunes of Ghanaians and position Ghana better.

He noted that, to achieve this, it was important to change the mind-set of Ghanaian businesses, while making Ghana a business friendly environment.  He urged Citi FM to replicate the programme on other platforms and in the vernacular to enable a larger section of the public to benefit from it, and pledged to help raise funds for that purpose.