info@businessghana.com
Mr Martyn Mensah, CEO of the UT Group has stated that Ghana is uniquely placed to leapfrog our peers in the lower middle income category and experience a 10 times multiplier in our development “if only we would nurture, incentivize and reward home grown economic players to blossom and grow into national, regional and global giants.” He said that the true entrepreneur does not need much stimulus but a better environment where he/she can amplify his or her efforts to create immense value to the benefit of the Nation.
Mr Martyn Mensah was speaking at the second in the series of Achimota Speaks which forms a part of activities lined up for a year-long celebration of the 90th anniversary of Achimota School. The topic was “Vision 2030...The Role of Industry, Business & Entrepreneurship”
Mr Mensah pointed out that “a process of selection of strategic areas that would take?off, given the right stimulus and support must be undertaken.” This strategic map, according to him, will “identify new, weak and under?served areas in the national value chain and provide a framework that targets, nurtures and protects specific players in these verticals to thrive and grow into sub?regional and continental stars.”
He recalled that at its zenith, the textile sub?sector dominated the manufacturing sector in Ghana. In 1970, there were 16 textile manufacturers who employed 25,000 people, he said. “Today, there are only 4 players left, operating at different levels of activity and they currently employ a mere 2,900 Ghanaians; a 90% decline in its contribution to employment over a period of 50 years.”
He said that in 2011, the ratio of imported textiles to exported textiles in Ghana, stood at 125%. By 2015, the excess of imported textiles over that exported, stood at a staggering 827%! “The only conclusion is that, from where we stand today, textile manufacturing will not be making any further meaningful contribution to the nation’s development. This is the sad state of affairs of a sector that had the potential to catalyze the development of a powerful supply chain linking cotton?farming to ginning, yarning and spinning and connecting to dye manufacturing and then linking forward to exporting as artisanal and commercial local clothing manufacture.”
My Martyn Mensah reminded Ghanaians that “every area in which we appear lacking represents potential to innovate or borrow and customize ideas from wherever they may be found.” He decried the practice of frustrating local businesses with so many taxes whereas a foreign investor in Ghana is welcomed with tax holidays, expatriate quotas, unfettered repatriation of profits and expedited port processes. On the other hand, he stated, a “local company will invest and re?invest for almost its entire existence and no matter how much it invests or how long it continues to re?invest or how much it grows, the best it can hope for is an aggressive tax audit and maybe a plaque for their troubles.
He asked if it wouldn't be more beneficial if we more aggressively encouraged meaningful local participation in the ownership and wealth creation of incoming entities?
The panelists who helped to debate the topic were Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance, Mrs Karen Akiwumi Tanoh, Non-Executive Director at Stratcom Africa, Mr Kofi Fynn, Managing Director of Petra Trust Company Ltd. and Mr Oko Nikoi-Dzani, Founder of NDK Financial Services. The moderator was Miss Carol Annang, CEO of The New Times Corporation. Mr Kwame Pianim, a Business Economist and Investment Consultant, chaired the function.
