Professor Douglas Boateng, the non-executive chairperson of the Minerals Income and Investment Fund (MIIF), has again urged governments educationalists and policymakers in developing economies to consider introducing strategic sourcing as a core subject to be taught at secondary, senior high schools and universities.
The retired Professor extraordinaire for supply chain management and industrialization, and former chairperson of the Public Procurement Authority, made the call during a Pan-African lecture at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) in Accra.
Professor Boateng told the audience that if Africa is to meet the 2030 goals and Agenda 2063, buying behaviour, especially among the youth, has to change. He said the youth need to understand the importance of their sourcing decisions on industrialisation and economic development.
“Strategic sourcing is one of the most important subjects the youth can learn for them to understand the impact of their behaviour on long-term industrialisation and economic development,” he said
He insisted that strategic sourcing should be incorporated into the curriculum of secondary, senior high schools and universities across Africa. “I think everyone should have some basic understanding of strategic sourcing before they graduate from secondary school and/or university,” Prof Boateng said.
“It is the key to Africa’s long-term economic growth and success of AFCFTA – a market that according to the World Bank will be worth over US$3trillion by 2035,” he added.
He explained that introducing strategic sourcing ‘early’ in the knowledge development cycle will help the youth understand their behavioural impact on industrialisation and development. “Africa leads the world in importing goods and services, yet our students do not study procurement. Why and how is this acceptable? We annually spend over a trillion dollars on goods and services. It is our responsibility to at least let them understand the implications of their choices,” he said.
For years, Professor Boateng has relentlessly advocated for incorporating strategic sourcing into the early education curriculum. In 2015 he made a call for strategic sourcing to be seen as a ‘core skill requirement’, similar to accounting and economics.
In 2009 the Professor joined the region’s top policymakers and C-Suite supply chain professionals to help update the Business Management curriculum in Business Schools and universities across the region. These updates ensured that supply chain management and procurement became integral parts of various educational and professional programmes.
At the lecture, Professor Boateng also presented GIMPA with free copies of his latest strategic sourcing book, Insights into Strategic Sourcing: The inextricable link to Africa’s long-term industrialisation, supply chain governance and economic development.
In his closing remarks, Professor Martin Morgan Tuuli, Deputy Rector of the university, co-host and chairman of the event said: “There is a need for supply chain management, and in particular strategic sourcing, to be at the core of the African Industrialisation agenda”. He promised that GIMPA will take the lead in the academic world and work closely with industry “to ensure that fit for purpose procurement professionals are churned out for industry, for the greater good of Ghana and the rest of Africa,” he further affirmed.
The latest edition of the Professor’s writings on sourcing is the only manuscript in the world providing practical insights into sourcing and its direct link to economic growth and development. Forewords for the book are written by the Secretary General of AFCFTA, Wamkele Mene; and the Co-chairman of the SDGs and president of Ghana, HE President Nana Akufo-Addo.
“Introducing students to the role and importance of strategic sourcing for regional industrialisation, economic growth and development early on in their education will help to support regional economies as they pursue industrialisation and sustainable development agendas,” Boateng concluded.
