The Ghana-Israel Business Chamber (GIBC) has called on government to improve communications on opportunities that can be tapped into by businesses in the face of current economic difficulties.
General Secretary for the Chamber, Edem Kofi Yevutsey, indicated that every crisis comes with its own opportunities; therefore, it would be proper to channel efforts into propagating and highlighting the opportunities rather than challenges.
“I think that a lot of the challenges are not long-term. I think some of them are short-term. There may be some ups and downs going forward, but in the midst of all this there are opportunities. So, my advice to government is that ‘yes, there are challenges and they are part of life; but let us try to shift the focus a little bit onto the opportunities and how we can improve’. The call is for government to do more work on highlighting opportunities. The narrative has most often been on the challenges, and that is not helping,” he said.
According to him, the Russia-Ukraine war – which government has cited for the current economic challenges – presents a great opportunity for Ghana’s agricultural sector. He said although the challenges may be there, it is important to focus more on the opportunities than the challenges.
“The USA took advantage of the Russia-Ukraine war to boost their grain exports to China as Ukraine is no longer able to export all the grain that it used to because of the war. While we were focusing on all the excuses and explanations of the situation, we could have directed our energies into improving agricultural productivity so we would take advantage of gaps left in the world market due to the war and boost our economy,” he noted.
He spoke at a Business Networking Cocktail organised by the Chamber on the theme ‘Analysing Ghana’s economy 2023 and beyond: What are the opportunities amid the crisis?’, and said the country has duty-free and tariff-free access to the United States of America’s (USA) market, which businesses must take advantage of.
He urged government to play a regulatory role by creating an enabling environment for supporting businesses.
Mr. Yevutsey further cautioned that: “If we are not careful as a country, we will focus all our energy on the challenges; we will lose sight of the opportunities and foreigners will come and take advantage of those opportunities; so our work as a chamber is to ensure that the opportunities are highlighted”.
