A retired justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Stephen Alan Brobbey, has advised Ghanaian business persons to put in place effective succession plan so that their businesses will continue to thrive even when they become too old or die.

Justice Brobbey said many successful businesses had collapsed because of lack of a succession plan, saying the situation also gave room for litigation among families, particularly after the demise of the owners.

Memorial lecture

In the main speech at the 60th anniversary memorial lecture of the late Opanin John Kwame Bawuah Bonsafo Edusei in Kumasi, last Friday, Justice Brobbey said it should be possible for Ghanaians to also own businesses such as the Hondas of Japan, if proper measures were in place.

Dr Kwame Bawuah Edusei, a former Ghana Ambassador to the USA in a hand shake with Nana Kwaku Amankwa Sarkodie II

“Others have done it and I don’t see the reason why many of us in Ghana cannot do it,” he said, citing particularly, the many successful businesses in Kumasi which had collapsed following the death of their owners as a result of litigation over their properties.

Dr Kwame Bawuah Edusei and his family

The retired Supreme Court judge said aside from the examples outside the country, there were equally good references within Ghana which could serve as examples for businesses in Ashanti to emulate.

Justice Stephen Brobbey, a Retired Supreme Court Judge, delivering the keynote address at the memorial lecture

According to him, businesses should not die with the demise of their owners and called on business men to have a purpose which would enable them to plan for the future.

Welcome address

The son of the late Opanin Edusei, Dr Kwame Bawuah Edusei, a former Ghana Ambassador to the USA, said the family decided to organise the lecture to celebrate the life of their father who was one of the first Ghanaians to receive education.

Dr Edusei said contrary to the traditional belief that education was for only male children, his father educated all his daughters in formal school, thus paving the way for girl child education in the Ashanti Region.

Dr Kwame Bawuah Edusei  with the Board Chairman of SSNIT, Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor

He said the late Opanin Edusei was a philanthropist and played an influential role in getting the late Otumfuo Nana Osei Prempeh I to be brought back to Ghana from exile in Seychelles.

Archbishop Sarpong

The Emeritus Archbishop of Kumasi of the Catholic Church in Ghana, Most Rev. Peter Akwasi Sarpong, commended the children for celebrating and honouring their father.

Some guests at the memorial lecture

He advised people to lead good lives in order to leave a legacy that would outlive their existence on earth.

Opanin Edusei was born on August 16, 1890 and hailed from Sewua in the Bosomtwe District of the Ashanti Region.

He was one of the few Asantes who received formal education and worked as District Commissioner for Adansi Akrokeri under the colonial government before resigning to go into business.

Ambassador Dr Kwame Bawuah Edusei (left), and some brothers sing in commemoration of their departed father