Captains of business react to State of the Nation address

Trade and manufacturing industry players have expressed mixed reactions to President John Mahama’s State of the Nation address.

While the Association of Industries (AGI) has described it as encouraging, the Ghana Union of Trades Association says the address does not reflect the challenges of its two million members.

The President of AGI, Mr James Asare-Adjei, says it is encouraged by President Mahama’s policy direction regarding a reduction in importation and an increase in local manufacturing and production.

However, he says President Mahama’s words will remain mere rhetoric if nothing concrete is done to make such statements a reality.

Reacting to President Mahama’s State of the Nation address to Parliament on Tuesday, Mr Asare-Adjei underscored the need for the government to fully engage the private sector in a dialogue to find solution to the country’s deepening industrial and manufacturing challenges.

In his address, President Mahama bemoaned the rising importation of goods into the Ghanaian economy, while very little was produced and consumed locally.

"A fundamental problem of our economy is that we do not make what we consume. Last year alone, we spent a whopping $1.5 billion in foreign currency on the import of rice, sugar, wheat, tomato products, frozen fish, poultry and vegetable cooking oils”, the President had said.

That trend, the President indicated, must change if the country was to grow its economy, and called on Ghanaians to patronise locally manufactured goods and services. 

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 Mr Asare-Adjei observed that President Mahama did not mention the private sector development strategic tool and the Ghana industrial policy, which, when fully implemented, could propel Ghana into a manufacturing country.

The Private Sector Development Strategic Tool was, for instance, expected to have been implemented between 2010 and 2015 but until now, “its implementation has not even yet started,” Mr Asare-Adjei stated.

GUTA

The President Ghana Union of Trades Association, Mr George Kwaku Ofori, told the Daily Graphic  that the challenges faced by the association were not reflected in the President’s State of the Nation address,

According to him, even before President Mahama delivered the address on Tuesday, members of GUTA had petitioned the government to do something about the rather high cost of doing business in the country but the President hardly touched on those issues.