Minister of Trade and Industry Dr. Ekow Spio-Garbrah has called on South Africa to call its citizen to order following recent xenophobic attacks there.
[contextly_sidebar id=”lRhvdA2IYC5EmJssgZueHIsSHgPaxIUa”]Some Ghanaian businesses have been forced to halt operations in areas affected by the attacks.
Already the likes of Nigeria have warned they will shut down South African businesses in Nigeria if South Africa does not call its citizens to order.
Commenting on the xenophobic attack in South Africa Dr. Ekow Spio-Garbrah said South Africa stands to lose huge investment if it does not stop its citizens from attacking foreigners.
“Part of what globalization is all about and African integration is about is for people to be able to do businesses in other countries and we are not killing a lot of foreigners that are living in Ghana. So if we are a selfish country we would like to take some ‘Makaba delight’ in the fact that another African country is worsening their investments climate image because once people see people being killed in a certain way in another country they will hesitate to expand their investments or investing in that country.”
Dr. Ekow Spio-Garbrah asked that South Africans behave themselves since indigenous South African businesses spread across the continent and the only way to prevent retribution was to put an end to the ongoing xenophobic attacks on individuals and businesses belonging especially to Africans.
“Very few people, they may not be up to a thousand are giving South Africa a bad name after the country spent so much time and money in branding itself but that is all it takes to give a country a bad name but I believe the police are doing all it can to stop the attacks.”
He spoke to Citi Business News at the sidelines of the opening of the ECOWAS industry and quality experts meeting which is ongoing in Accra, where he called for the establishment of a regional body that will deal with standards.
According to Dr. Ekow Spio-Garbrah this should help cut the high level of cost and reduce duplication within West African States.
He tells Citi Business News this is the only way to check and prevent substandard goods from getting into member countries.
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By: Norvan Acquah – Hayford/citifmonline.com/Ghana