SUPPORT GROWTH OF LOCAL COMPANIES — DR BOATENG (PAGE 42, JUNE 3, 2010)

A GHANAIAN Engineering Business expert, Dr Douglas Boateng, has called on the government to support the growth of local companies into giant establishments to enable them to rub shoulders with their international counterparts.
Dr Boateng said it was regrettable for instance that today some major construction works were awarded to foreign companies because of the inability of the local companies to meet various requirements, including equipment holding.
Dr Boateng, who is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Panavest International, a niche business and investment company in South Africa, said Ghana must take lessons from other developing countries that had been able to build local companies, some of which had participated and won international bids.
Inaugurating the West Africa Institute for Supply Chain Leadership at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Dr Boateng stressed the need for the country to revisit the “good old days” when the government built strong establishments like the GIHOC conglomerate.
He said there were immense benefits in building huge conglomerates.
Dr Boateng urged Ghanaians not to see the discovery of oil as the panacea to the economic challenges facing the nation.
He said the real solution to the economic difficulties lay in the ability to manage the numerous resources of the nation, including cocoa, and for the people to work hard to improve productivity.
According to him, Ghana had over the years not managed to use resources from cocoa, gold, manganese and other resources to its advantage.
“This is what we have to address instead of seeing the discovery of oil as the end to Ghana’s woes,” Dr Boateng stated.
He said a company like MTN International’s market capital was bigger than that of Ghana’s total GDP, which was unacceptable for a nation with many resources.
Dr Boateng further suggested to the private sector to consider going into partnership to strengthen their capital base for expansion.
He emphasised the need for the government to think about using supply chain as a way of strengthening state institutions.
He said, “Unless the supply chain management concept is adopted, future generations will still be talking about the same unproductive development issues while the government goes round the world with a bowl in hand looking for support.”