The University of Ghana has appointed the Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies, Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, as a member of the Annual New Year School and Conference (ANYSC) Corporate Advisory team.
The team was inaugurated by President Akufo-Addo at the 73rd Annual New Year School Conference organised by the University of Ghana and tasked with the responsibility to advise how reports of the conference will help advance Ghana’s strategic growth.
The team is chaired by Mr. Samuel Okudzeto, Member of the Council of State, and includes Mr. Ken Ofori Attah, Minister of Finance; Dr. Ernest Addison; Prof. Olivia Kwapong; Mr. Andrews Dotse, and Mrs. Regina Afari Boateng.
Speaking at the conference, which was on the theme ‘COVID-19 and Socio-economic Dynamics in Ghana’, Dr. Agyepong indicated that COVID-19 as a global pandemic brought innovation into Ghana’s private sector, as companies had to innovate to cope with the challenges which came with the pandemic.
Dr. Agyepong pointed out that innovations such as local production of hand sanitisers, nose masks, hand washing machines, disinfection chemicals, among others, were some initiatives local companies and SMEs had to venture into to create new job opportunities.
“We at the Jospong Group of Companies and Zoomlion Ghana Limited had to innovate in the areas of assembling technologies and equipment to undertake nationwide disinfection exercises. We had to learn from what the Chinese were doing, and locally replicated that by designing and assembling vehicles that can undertake massive disinfection activities.”
Dr. Agyepong lauded the visionary leadership of President Akuffo-Addo during the intense period of COVID-19 and his support to help local companies innovate to fight COVID-19.
President Akufo-Addo, in a statement as the guest speaker, indicated that Ghana recorded one of the lowest COVID-19 death-rates in the world – and this was due to the prudent management of COVID-19.
He said Ghana was named alongside Korea as one of the best countries to have properly managed the pandemic.
The president noted that there were no lay-offs in the public sector, and salaries of public sector workers were not reduced
He added that Ghana remained a food self-sufficient country, despite the global food supply chain impact, due to the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative.
The Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Mrs. Mary Chinery-Hesse, indicated that since inception of the annual New Year School and Conference in 1948 it has provided a unique platform for national discourse on development issues.
“National and local government agencies, academia and other stakeholders have used this platform to deliberate Ghana’s strategic growth.”
She said the newly inaugurated ANYSC Corporate Advisory team will help stimulate the country’s economic growth.
