At a time when foreign investors are targeting African countries as their preferred choice of investments, Citi Business News has learnt a number of foreign investors have been forced to abandon their investment plans for Ghana due to the lazy attitude of some workers in both the private and public institutions.
[contextly_sidebar id=”nRzadWSb1nJDGoUUhEimKaPZil6mxILO”]The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr. Ekow Spio Gabrah who confirmed the development to Citi Business News said the lack of urgency among workers is turning away investors and making Ghana loose trade opportunities.
The Minister made these remarks when he addressed an entrepreneurs’ breakfast meeting in Accra,
“Entrepreneurship development requires an environment that makes people profitable. We are talking about profit as a major development of entrepreneurs and this requires policies that provide for an enabling environment that is supportive of entrepreneurs,”
“But unfortunately in this country, most of the public and civil servants have not run any business before, not even managed a pay roll where they are paying 5 to 10 or 15 people a month and so they are very insensitive to many needs of business and entrepreneurs where time is money,” he stated.
Ghana was also unable to make it to the top ten growing African economies in the latest World Economic Outlook report released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Neighbouring Cote d’Ivoire was named as the continent’s fastest economy with its GDP expected to grow by 8.5% in 2016; with Uganda assuming the tenth position.
Meanwhile Dr. Ekow Spio Gabrah has called for a total reform for the public and private service to make them investor friendly.
“We need to have workshops and sensitization and also initiate polices to end these things as more public and civil servants will understand the essence of time to the businessman,which is the time value of money whether you are registering a business or anything that the entrepreneur needs,” he further explained.
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By: Norvan Acquah-Hayford/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana