The Greater Accra Regional Chair of the AGI, Tsonam Cleanse Akpeloo posits that the challenges of Ghanaian industries and businesses are more systematic than deliberate.
He called for a complete overhaul of the local industrial and manufacturing processes to enable their growth and expansion into the international market.
“It is the dream of the industry to be able to produce not for the local market only but for exports as well, but the reality of the economy is such that the environment is harsh for the local industries because they have to deal with issues that ordinarily should not exist,” he exclaimed.
Comparing the process of rice production and packaging for export between Vietnam and Ghana, he stated, “rice production by an SME in Vietnam is structured and systemized in a way that they can produce and export with ease but doing some in Ghana is a real hustle right from the quality of laborers to raising money to invest in the process.”
Tsonam Cleanse Akpeloo admits this and other factors cause Small and Medium Enterprises to quietly switch businesses and try different markets. He however believes this can be resolved with business continuity and sustainability achieved.
“To make the market for business easier for SMEs, we need a systemic overhaul. The quality of laborers we have even makes business difficult in Ghana. A lot of people pretend to be working in Ghanaian industries and the owner also pretends to be paying them and we need to deal with these issues.”
Regarding the attitudinal change as important in improving the local business industry, he cited some grim instances where locals impeded productivity. “Sometimes our industry players go in for Indians to oversee their operations because Ghanaian workers are effective and efficient under them. But when you bring a Ghanaian manager to oversee Ghanaian workers they misbehave and that is wrong.
I used to work at tech firm and one time I had to go to an engineer’s home to pound fufu just so he gets his work done. This is not politics it is about attitudinal change and making sure we reset the basic rule and take our work seriously.”
Speaking to another reality of the local industries, he pointed out their reliance on archaic methods and machinery for their operations. “Some use equipment which do not support effectiveness and efficiency. Some local industries do not even know new technologies exists to increase their productivity. But if we are able to provide support to our local businesses and improve our systems, we can achieve more and better our economy.”
He made his position known at the Happy Development Dialogues hosted by Happy 98.9FM’s Don Kwabena Prah on the topic; ‘‘Understanding the relevance of AfCFTA for Ghana and Industry Players’.
