Alex Frimpong
Government has been asked to create a congenial atmosphere for businesses to expand.
Speaking at a Breakfast Meeting of Ghana Employers’ Association at Takoradi yesterday, Alex Frimpong, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Association, stressed that businesses would not make progress in the face of power outage, shortage of water and high interest rates.
He therefore called on the Association and government to deepen their engagement to resolve the problems once and for all in order to help businesses to thrive in the country.
“Investors may hold back their investment in the country and many companies may fold up if we are not able to overcome such problems which help productivity and essential to employers,” he added.
He cited the operations of illegal small-scale gold miners, popularly called ‘galamsey,” pointing out that their activities pose a threat to water bodies and the environment and that government and all stakeholders should find a lasting solution to the problem.
“How can businesses borrow at high interest rate of between 24 per cent and 30 per cent in Ghana and make progress whereas their counterparts in other countries have very low interest rates and other flexible terms of payment,” he said.
He stated that many businesses, which used to do extremely well, had folded up in Ghana because of various challenges.
He also expressed dissatisfaction with the importation of substandard and counterfeit goods and products from certain countries which had deepened the woes of local investors and employers.
“This region and for that matter Sekondi-Takoradi and Tarkwa used to be brisk business centres and we should revive the industrial and entrepreneurial spirit in order to offer employment to the teeming unemployment youth and graduates,” Frimpong added.
Ebenezer Kojo Teye Addo, Western Regional Minister, said the government would continue to partner the Ghana Employers’ Association to ensure national development.
“It is even the government’s desire to create wealth and employment for all Ghanaians, so we will entreat the Ghana Employers Association to prepare a paper outlining their challenges through me to the Ministry of Finance for consideration,” the minister added.
He gave the assurance that the current electricity and water crises would soon be a thing of the past since the government was putting in place the necessary measures to arrest the situation.
J. A. Bawuah, Western Regional Advisory Committee of Ghana Employers’ Association, said his outfit would partner government to make Sekondi-Takoradi the second industrial hub of Ghana and change the business landscape of the region.
He called on employers and other businesses to jell their ideas in order to remove all the bottlenecks that hinder the growth of businesses in the region.
Meanwhile, some employers and other participants are unhappy with some metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives in the region for failing to address the rampant sale of land by chiefs and land owner to companies and speculative interest groups.
They called on the regional minister to be resolute in fighting “galamsey” operators since almost all water bodies were being polluted and the environment degraded with impunity.
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