The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) says it is ready to collaborate with the government on a newly announced National Business Consultative Platform, aimed at addressing challenges facing the private sector.
President John Dramani Mahama introduced it as a formal mechanism to strengthen collaboration between the government and the private sector, with the goal of addressing business challenges and shaping more responsive economic policies.
Tsonam Akpeloo, Dean of Regional Chairs of the AGI, welcomed the move but stressed that specific issues, including high taxation and limited access to capital, must be addressed as part of the dialogue.
“We are talking about a lot of taxes, and we are asking the government to take away some of these taxes that are affecting the growth of the sector. We are also talking about access to capital, and the cost associated with accessing this capital,” Akpeloo said. “These are issues that the government needs to deal with because we believe that it is only when the president is on this issue that bothers, that he will be able to take the right decisions and actions.”
He added that the AGI expects the platform to go beyond its initial launch and evolve into a structured, ongoing channel for meaningful cooperation between the private sector and government. “We are happy to cooperate to set it up and ensure that it will not just be a launch but rather a meaningful, and productive engagement with the government.”
Akpeloo also called on the government to take stronger steps to boost the competitiveness of local industry by discouraging imports of goods that can be produced domestically.
“The government needs a certain drastic measure to promote local production because there are products in Ghana that we do have competitive advantages over,” he said. “What we require is for the government to discourage importation of these products that we have and can produce locally. That way, the government will provide the needed capacity for local industry to be able to produce 24 hours.”
He noted that many local manufacturers are operating at just half of their production capacity and urged policies that would enable full utilization of existing infrastructure and create more jobs.
