Africa must integrate to be a force - Daniel Amateye
The Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Certified Economist of Ghana, Mr Daniel Anim Prempeh Amateye, has underscored the need for African countries to come together to integrate their economies.
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This, he said, was the only way for Africa to compete with other market forces globally.
Mr Amateye said this in an interview with the Graphic Business at the first lecture organised by ICEG in Accra.The lecture was on the theme, “Re-positioning Ghana’s economy for growth and development”.
According to him, the continent had been blessed with many natural resources which needed to be refined increase their value within competition.
He said this would help create a value chain which would produce more jobs that would in a way help address most of the unemployment challenges in the country.
He stated that there would be a need for the government to look within and turn to local manufacturers and entrepreneurs who are doing well in the local economy to support them to expand the economy and also create more jobs for the people.
Growing other sectors
The Dean of the School of Business & Leadership of the Regent University of Science and Technology, Accra, Dr Ebenezer Ashley, in his submission, advised the country to focus on other sectors of the economy and move its attention from the oil sector.
This, he said, would help the country to grow other sectors of the economy and also make the country to be self-sufficient with the proceeds from the other sectors.
According to him, other traditional oil driven economies such Qatar and the United Arab Emirate (UAE) are shifting their attention from oil revenues and focusing on maximising revenues from other sectors of their respective economies.
“One thing we must understand is that minimising attention on the agriculture sector would mean that we would be importing more food into the country and that would affect the national purse.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Business and Financial Times, Mrs Edith Dankwah and in her submission, stressed the need for the country to move towards the area of domestication.
According to her, should more investment be made into the agricultural sector, there would be no need for the country to import food from outside but rather we can export to gain more foreign exchange.
The CE0 of Monfant Banks, Dr Jerry Monfant advised that Ghana should learn from other developed such as Singapore, which without any natural resource, have been able to make their economy a strong one.
He added that the country should think of look at investing in agrochemicals which was in high demand in the sub region.
ICEG plans to hold more of such lectures from time-to-time to create the platform for all to be able to help in nation building by coming up with strategic ideas to move the country forward.