AGI President urges members to have good governance systems
Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Ghana Industry (AGI), Seth Akwaboah, has called on members to develop proper governance structures to enable them benefit from the various interventions the Association was offering.
According to him, some members had lost out on many international agency programmes for development and even national programmes because their business systems did not support the requirements of such programmes.
“It hurts me that after struggling to negotiate and bring in some of these interventions, our members are not able to benefit because along the line of requirements, they lacked the basic things,” he said.
He therefore encouraged them to be ready through the institution of basic organisational structures to make them ready for such opportunities.
The AGI President made the assertion speaking at the 18th Annual General Meeting of the Association for the members of the Western and Central branches on the theme: “Repositioning Local Industries to Leverage on the African Continental Free Trade”.
The President further underscored the need for members to also pay attention to business governance as the AGI, had introduced the Enterprise Resources Programme to develop a software that would track inventory, human resources and financial prowess of registered members to enable them benefit more.
Read Also: iEPA: GITFiC expresses worry over trade pact between Ghana and the EU
He reminded them of the AGI’s role in creating enabling business environment and the requisite technical support adding, “if we are enjoying stable business environment… remember that some of us our working behind the scenes with government to ensure that”.
Regional Vice Chairman of the Association, Joseph Garbrah, also speaking at the event noted the impact of COVID-19 on businesses and advised them to scale up efforts and energies to accelerate the industrialization drive of the economy.
He also called for more government support to build local capacity to expand and employ.
Regional Director of the Ghana Free Zones Authority, Hajia Hamanatu Abubakar, also called on AGI members to rebrand to stand the test of competition as customer lifetime value was crucial for loyalty and sustained businesses.
Hajia Abubakar also spoke on the need for innovation that was crucial to business differentiation.
She however bemoaned the lack of funding sources as key limiting factors and called on financial institutions to assist businesses particularly the SMEs.