Plan for the worst case scenario — Bozumbil
The Chief Executive Officer of Petrosol, Michael Bozumbil, has tasked businesses to put their destinies into their own hands and fashion out a plan that can sustain them irrespective of which political party is in power.
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He also entreated the business community to be compliant of the various tax regimes in the country and respect all business laws in the country to avoid any political interferences in their businesses.
“To ensure business sustainability in a political climate such as Ghana’s, we business people must not rely on the yearly budget readings of the government, we must act as though there is no national budget for this country,” he noted.
Speaking at the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra yesterday, Mr Bozumbil who was making a contribution under the theme, “Fiscal Discipline: Breaking the political business cycle in 2024”, described the behavior of various governments in terms of budget implementation during election years as similar to the behavior of an irresponsible father.
“So for us as business operators in an economy like this that over the years our political leadership have acted in ways that suggest quite strongly that they’re not disciplined, because we’re talking about financial discipline, we must always plan for the worst case scenario” he said.
Challenging economic times
He noted that to remain in business in the current challenging economic conditions, businesses will have to rely on themselves and avoid any affiliations with any political party.
“Most often provisions in the budget are not fulfilled, and even when they are, do not benefit the average business operator, because government is always taking from us, so let comply with the regulatory requirement and break the electoral cycle,” he stated.
He advised that businesses to ensure financial discipline while taking the worst case scenario approach when it comes to the national budget to avoid any high expectations of government.
“So for us as business operators our approach has been to assume that we don’t have a father in order to survive. So what it means is that for any serious business operating in a business climate like this, you better take worst case scenario approach. And that worst case scenario approach is to first assume that what is being presented as budget, nothing will be done about it. That’s the first point,” he said.
Businesses must be Apolitical
He called on businesses to break the cycle where businesses are lost or destroyed when government changes by placing more emphasis on their businesses and less on political issues and government budgets
“For you to ensure that your business survives every election then please in as much as it is important to look at the budget you have to ask yourself to what extent is what is said in the budget that is even being implemented.
So you must as a business operate with the mindset that there is no national budget. It is a difficult decision to make but it is the best approach to ensure business sustainability." he noted