‘Corruption raising cost of doing business’
The Managing Director of Damco Ghana, Mr Frank Eshun, has asked chief finance officers (CFOs) in the country to join in the fight against corruption in their respective workplaces.
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The collaboration from CFOs is needed to uproot the canker and lower the cost of doing business in the country, Mr Eshun said in Accra.
He said at its height, corruption was impacting negatively on the cost of doing business; hence, the need for all stakeholders to join in the fight against it.
With cost of doing business being a determinant of the number of investments a country can attract, Mr Eshun, who is also Damco’s Chief Commercial Officer for West Africa, said Ghana needed to eliminate industrial corruption to be able to become more attractive to investors.
“Implementing this will start from the CFOs, who will be seen as influencers to help change the direction the company should go to help root out corruption,” he said at the CFOs’ Summit in Accra.
He explained at the event, where the CFOs Survey was launched, that if CFOs were focused and committed to curbing corruption in business institutions, a chunk of the country’s corruption issues would be solved.
Lack of continuity culture
The Consulting Manager for Deliotte Ghana, Mr Martin Atta-Fynn, said the government should put a stringent continuity policy in place that would be observed by all successive governments to enhance business developments.
He explained that because of the different policies set by different governments, there was no continuity in a certain development agenda, which posed setbacks in businesses and the economy at large.
He added that “if the ‘one-district, one-factory’ policy (which is a laudable idea) goes on and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government happens not to be in power the next four years, it is likely that the next government will not continue with this policy; this has been a challenge for us and actually stalls our development.”
He stated that with a stringent continuity policy in place, the country would focus on working towards continuing projects in spite of the political party or the government in power, which would help develop the economy faster.
CFO Survey Report
The annual programme, organised by Deloitte Ghana, is a brand engagement event whose focus this year is on a report from a survey conducted in 2016.
The report incorporated the collective views of CFO’s in West Africa (Ghana and Nigeria), East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia) and Southern Africa (Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and South Africa).
The report recorded that businesses operating in tough economic environment have been characterised by low commodity prices, depreciating currencies and diminishing demand from large trading partners, and that had made the role of the CFOs operating in sub-Saharan Africa tougher than ever.
“Fortitude will continue to be the watchword for companies' stewards in 2016 and beyond as they strive to find creative ways to deal with their current challenges, boost company performance and increase shareholder value,” the report added.