Wealth Creation: The 4th Horizon of Ghana’s Growth

The Objectives of the Ishmael Yamson & Associates’ Business Roundtable

Ishmael Yamson & Associates (IY&A) designs each Business Roundtable to showcase and activate dialogue on sustainable economic opportunities and avenues for economic progress.  The forum helps executives, policymakers, millennials, and key stakeholders to:

a -  Build an understanding of the current and emerging issues facing the economy of Ghana and businesses operating in the country;

b -  Explore the trends in our political economy which impact positively or negatively on our national development agenda;

c -  Examine the role that independent and resilient public institutions can and must play in shaping the transformation of Ghana;

d -  Identify potential opportunities that can be exploited to drive our national and enterprise-level growth and prosperity;

e -  Share relevant strategies that the political and economic leadership can adopt to drive growth and development for the creation of a fairer society; and

f -  Explore how Corporate Ghana can better manage the risks and opportunities of the current political and democratic context and take advantage of the emerging 4th Industrial Revolution for national development.

In Rough Seas

Ghana is a part of the fast-paced globalised economy characterised by technological change, disruption, uncertainties, and fierce competition.  Countries and organisations everywhere operate in a boundaryless world market, and no attempt by governments to erect economic barriers has protected any economy from the realities of global competition.

The economic shutdown and social restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic followed by the conflict between Ukraine and Russia catalysed the unravelling of globalisation and imposed the reform of the global economy.  The combined impact of these dislocations has disrupted global supply chains, created inflationary shocks in several countries and caused hikes in energy and food prices. Ghana’s situation has been worsened by capital flight after it lost access to international capital markets and the recent downgrade of the country’s credit rating to junk status.

Ghana faces many issues. Rapid accumulation of debt and debt service obligations coupled with poor assessments of the associated increase in productivity or revenue, unsustainable and poorly funded social programmes, and low revenue mobilisation have impeded progress.  Similarly, the sustained evaporation of investor confidence, declining growth rates, growing youth unemployment, over-dependence on imports - especially for food, and pervasive greed and corruption within the public sector and the political class have clouded our prospects.

The deterioration of the macroeconomic environment brings into sharp relief the difficult journey out of crises Ghana must chart.

It’s Alchemy

Ghana’s poor performance has exposed an economy bereft of guardrails and safety nets; and lacking resilience in the key sectors on which the country traditionally relies for trade income, domestic jobs growth and economic vibrancy.

In riposte, academic, economic and political thought-leaders are increasingly converging on what we term a Trident Strategy to build a stable long-term path to growth based on Ghana’s long-stated intent to;

a -  Evolve from an agrarian economy to an agribusiness-driven economy,

b -  Recalibrate the culture, arts and tourism sector into a series of vibrant business hubs, and

c -  Invest in ICT infrastructure and associated human resources to support the domestic and export market opportunities in the agribusiness, culture, art and tourism sectors. 

To succeed in this new global economic construct and become a significant player in trade and manufacturing, Ghana must build the three focus sectors to power a new economy by aggressively investing to:

a -  Develop, empower and liberate a high-quality young workforce in a new business culture that rewards productivity, drive and global best performance

b -  Raise productivity across the agribusiness value chain and modernise agriculture,

c -  Leverage the competitive advantages with the greatest potential for economic and jobs growth in the culture, arts and tourism sectors, and

d -  Take on the challenge of rapid growth and world-class competition enabled by ICT in productive sectors where the economy can perform at high levels of efficiency and productivity;

It is the implementation of the new human resource-focused strategy emphasising (a) Agribusiness, (b) Culture, Arts and Tourism, (c) and ICT which will deliver a vibrant new economy and sustainably profitable enterprises.

The Black Star of Africa is not quite done.  

The Outcomes

The Roundtable interactions will reveal novel approaches to delivering a strong and sustainable economy, drawing on the opportunities in the new focus sectors. Participants will emerge with:

a -  A common understanding of the remodelling of the strategic direction and implementation actions required to create a prosperous, well-governed, competitive economy with real prospects for personal and corporate growth;

b -  Ideas about the most effective ways to successfully (re) brand Made-in-Ghana and deliver disruptive innovations in agribusiness, culture, arts and tourism to boost trade and market shares.

c -  A clear definition of the partnership between Government and corporate leaders to develop clear policy directions from the public sector and aligned contributions from the private sector to deliver sustainable transformation across the economy, and

d -  The Business Roundtable 2023 will also continue the business and educational support awards launched in 2021. The awards invite applications from qualifying African entrepreneurs and students between the ages of 18 and 35. Winning business applicants receive funding and other forms of support for their business projects or proposals in the early stages of development or launch.  Students with winning applications will receive support for tertiary or technical education.