Pan-African Management Fellowship, Djondo, has embarked on an ambitious plan to help create Ghanaian multinationals.
At the Fellowship’s recent training for some 50 Senior Executives from leading companies in Ghana, it explored solutions to challenges that Ghanaian companies face in setting up and managing cross-border operations in Africa.
Speakers at the seminar included: Hon. Alhaji Awal Mohammed, Minister for Business Development, Mr. David Ofosu-Dorte, Executive Chairman of pan-African law firm AB & David, and Mr. Arnold Ekpe, former CEO of Ecobank Group.
Mr. Ekpe is one of Africa’s most respected multinational business leaders who led most of Ecobank Group’s aggressive cross-border expansion to more than 30 countries.
Delivering the keynote remarks, Hon. Alhaji Awal Mohammed gave details of the government of Ghana’s plans to make Ghanaian businesses more competitive across Africa and beyond.
The Minister emphasized the government’s commitment to maintaining stable power supply, lowering interest and inflation rates, formalizing the economy for businesses through the digital address system, introduction of an e-registration system that allows companies to register their businesses online within 48hrs, and provision of training, grants and loans to start-ups led by young entrepreneurs.
He concluded by adding that the government is committed to building a pan-African business culture and has set a target of creating 20 indigenous Ghanaian pan-African businesses in 4 years.
Mr. Arnold Ekpe, the first lead speaker, explained how expanding across borders gives companies scale and diversity.
He shared his experiences in doing businesses across Africa, highlighting how companies must build a robust model that will be sustainable long-term.
Mr. Ekpe spoke on themes ranging from regulation & compliance, language barrier, treating each country as a special case as opposed to a single strategy for all countries, trade-offs between growth and efficiency, and operating along product- lines versus country segmentation of businesses.
Concluding the speaker session, Mr. David Ofosu-Dorte spoke on regulatory and legal barriers in doing business across Africa and stressed on making the right local partnerships to facilitate cross-border operations.
He said that companies must focus on trends – that companies need to understand the changes that occur around them and adapt to those changes early enough to compete effectively.
The seminar is expected to be replicated in key African cities including; Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi, Casablanca, Abidjan and Dakar.
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Credit: Djondo Fellowship
