In a meeting held on Wednesday 13 July 2022, Speaker Alban Bagbin confirmed parliament’s commitment to supporting the development of supply chain management thinking among parliamentary members and in the legislature.
This follows the Knowledge Development Alliance’s donation of supply chain book, Executive Insights Series: Compendium of Supply Chain Management Terms to all members of parliament.
The Knowledge Development Alliance is a first of its kind development partnership between the Ghana National Library, the National Lottery Authority, PanAvest International and Partners and Professor Douglas Boateng which is focused on creating national awareness of the importance of industrialisation and supply chain management and their link to job creation, economic growth and development.
Commenting on the donation, Speaker of Parliament Mr. Bagbin said: “As the legislature we are aware of the possibilities that supply chain management has for national development, regional integration, enhanced trade and economic diversification, the reduction of corruption and elimination of wasteful expenditure.
This supply chain reference guide will provide a holistic and easy-to-digest overview of supply chain terminology and will enable members of parliament to become familiar with important supply chain-related terms, abbreviations, data and calculations – all of which are necessary to ensure that knowledge and best practices related to supply chain management are understood and implemented effectively.”
Responding in support of Mr. Alban Bagbin’s clarion call for the need for knowledge development in the area of supply chain management plus making books accessible to the public, Edward Addo-Yobo, representing the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Library Authority(GhLA) said; “GhLA is fully committed to making relevant life enriching and approved knowledge development reading materials available to all citizenries. So far most affiliated libraries in the country have copies. We are on track to make them available at all senior high school Libraries and other learning institutions by year end.”
The Compendium offers an all-inclusive guide to the terminology, abbreviations, metrics and statistics related to procurement, logistics and other areas of supply chain management.
The Executive Insights Series: Compendium of Supply Chain Management Terms remains the only all-inclusive supply chain reference guide in the world and is the first of its kind to be independently assessed and approved by a national curriculum body, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA).
Professor Douglas Boateng, CEO of PanAvest International and Partners and compiler of the Compendium, noted the growing need for supply chain knowledge development in the country and thanked Honourable Bagbin for placing focused attention on African supply chain best practice.
“Supply chain management involves the seamless management of all interlinked value-adding activities that tangible and intangible goods and services encounter as they move through a value-chain en route to the end customer. If done effectively, entire government machinery can adapt supply chain thinking to further enhance the broader socio-economic fortunes of the country.
Without question a common understandings of supply chain management and its role in long-term industrialisation and socio-economic development is essential for the realisation of Ghana’s developmental agenda, AfCFTA and the UNSDGs, ” he said.
“By its nature, supply chain management helps to break down silos and self-centred thinking within a value chain, thus ensuring the creation of a shared vision for sustainable long-term and ‘win-win’ partnerships and the greater good,” Boateng added.
Without the visionary efforts and commitment from the alliance partners including amongst others, the National lottery Authority and the Ghana library Authority, this already relatively successful long term driven human capital development initiative would have struggled to become a reality. He concluded.
