Forum to enhance logistics, supply management held
The President of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), Mr G.D. Mensah, has urged African countries to put in place the right policies and infrastructure to enable them to tackle the challenges they face as emerging target markets for global sourcing.
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The move, he said, would help to improve the continent’s share of global trade and create jobs for the teeming youth and school graduates.
Mr Mensah was speaking at a forum to discuss how Ghana could be effectively positioned to benefit from global sourcing, especially in the area of logistics and supply chain management.
It was attended by operators in the logistics and transport industry, as well as 16 students from Cranfield University in the UK, who were in the country to ascertain the challenges facing Ghana’s logistics and supply chain management sector.
Cranfield University is well-known worldwide for the teaching of logistics and supply chain management.
The Cranfield University team was led by Dr Denyse Julien, a Senior Lecturer in supply chain management of the school.
Mr Mensah said global sourcing had now become the prerequisite for business survival in the fiercely competitive environment.
He noted that with reduced trade barriers and well-developed logistics networks, the competition had a more global character and the sourcing content of manufactured products reflected that trend.
For example, he said, in the production of American cars, 30 per cent of the car’s value originated in Korea, 17.5 per cent in Japan, 7.5 per cent in Germany, four per cent in Taiwan and Singapore and 2.5 per cent in the UK, with only 37 per cent of the production value generated in the US.
“That is why global sourcing has become an ultimate international business strategy,” he said.
Dr Julien expressed the hope that the visit, the first by any team from Cranfield University to Africa, would strengthen the relationship between the university and the CILT.
She said the team was interested in cocoa transportation and the challenges it posed to the country and would use the visit to study the sector.
Story: Mark Anthony-Vinorkor
