GNCCI to outdoor strategic plan
The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industries (GNCCI), is set to outdoor a five-year-strategic plan to support the industrial sector in the country.
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The strategic plan, which will be unveiled in June this year, is expected to position the country’s industrial sector into an attractive environment for businesses to thrive.
The President of the chamber, Nana Dr Appiagyei Dankawoso I, who revealed this at the inauguration of a new committee of the chamber in Accra, pledged the GNCCI’s commitment to help the government to fast-track the economic development of the country with a special focus on not only trade, but the agricultural sector.
“Due to this, the chamber is putting systems and structures in place to ensure the GNCCI meet its goals and objectives,” he stated.
He, therefore, announced plans of the chamber to engage with the government towards the development of a reduced interest rate regime on loans for farmers.
He said the present conditions under which farmers borrowed from banks for their commercial activities were negatively impacting on the profitability of their businesses as well as the attainment of food security.
Nana Dankawoso I, who is also the president of the West African Chamber of Commerce stressed that there was the need for a paradigm shift if the country really wanted to ensure food security and accelerated economic development.
Moving forward, he said, a special project would be undertaken that would build the capacity of small and medium scale enterprises to enable them to take advantage of the opportunities that abound at the international level.
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“We also want to empower our business women because population-wise, women are more but when it comes to business operations, our women lack the required leverage,” he said.
Membership drive
He indicated that the immediate priority of the chamber was to embark on a massive membership drive for the GNCCI, adding that there was the need to strengthen the chamber to become a viable one.
“We would develop a five-years-strategic-plan which will focus on the expansion of the chamber and the growth of the private sector in general,” he noted.
According to the president, under his leadership, the chamber had acquired a piece of land at Osu in the Greater Accra Region to begin the construction of an ultra-modern office complex to house the GNCCI.
He noted that GNCCI would soon establish a school to train people in business and trade-related issues in order to help up and coming entrepreneurs to learn modern trend of doing business.
He said the year 2013 and 2014 experienced several upheavals, evidenced by public sector industrial actions under and unreliable supply of vital utilities, an increase in the general cost of doing business and the general decline in economic performance.
”We would engage the government to address the number of challenges businesses operating in the country encounter on a daily bases because the private sector continues to be the engine of growth,” he added.
He said the chamber was focused on ensuring “the geometric kind of economic growth” and for that to happen, there was the need to “change the gear” for the chamber to play the leading role in galvanising the private sector for accelerated growth.
The vision of the chamber, he said, was to change the fortunes of Ghanaian businesses through advocacy and added that it was the duty of the government to ensure that a friendly atmosphere was created for businesses to thrive.