There is growing tension among business operators in the country over calls for an appointment of a business minister.
[contextly_sidebar id=”QsIWWXUwMtOFyHPV7tIlyrJgDd2IOkCh”]The chaos stared after lawyer and a council member of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) David Ofosu – Dorte advocated for the appointment of a minister of business.
A number of business associations Citi Business News spoke to have rejected the call.
The friction among the various business groups started after council member of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) David Ofosu – Dorte called on the private sector to push for the appointment of the Minister of Business as the appointment will influence the creation and implementation of policies that will make Ghanaian business competitive on the global stage.
“Private sector is different from business because government does business, as I set the tone ECG is business even though it is owned by the government and if you don’t look at it from that angle and you say that you are looking for a minister for the private sector they look at it from the private sector perspective. Who takes care when government does business and who takes care when SOS collapse and the tax payers money is used to pay them. We need the minister for business, even advance countries have that. It is the duty to ensure that the bottlenecks business face are constantly removed.”
Am not looking for the public sector to start it but am challenging the private sector to start the advocacy to have the minister of business as other ministers like the trade and industry and that of the public private partnership minister are responsible for specific sectors, as when you are talking of businesses you are looking at both public sector and private sector perspective, Senior partner of AB and David law firm David Ofosu – Dorte told Citi Business News.
But a number of business associations who spoke to Citi Business News on the matter say the call is unnecessary.
According to them the creation of such a ministry will only duplicate the trade ministry.
Though they believe there is more to be done by the trade’s ministry to improve the business environment and competitiveness of Ghanaian businesses they tell Citi Business News the creation will not serve its intended purpose.
Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) says the call must be rejected as the move will only add to government’s expenditure.
According to the President of GUTA George Ofori ‘by looking for that minister what does that mean because we already have a trades minister we also have the private sector ministry so I don’t know what is behind the concept i think he needs to explain the call further’. He said.
Meanwhile AGI if on the same table with its council member will have to submit its proposal to other business associations based on which a decision will be taken on whether to more the call forward or not.
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By: Vivian Kai Lokko/citifmonline.com/Ghana
