Africa-Press – Ghana. President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday night hosted Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of banks and other financial institutions, who participated in the recently held Kwahu Business Forum at a dinner reception at the Presidency in Accra.
The dinner was to afford the President the opportunity to express his gratitude to the CEOs for their participation in the Second Kwahu Business Forum, which was held within the Easter season from Saturday, April 19th to Sunday, April 20th, at the Mpraeso Social Centre in the Kwahu South District of the Eastern Region.
The Kwahu Business Forum is a major initiative to foster entrepreneurship and support the growth of Ghana’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
It is a direct response to the government’s vision of expanding Ghana’s private sector capacity, especially in the agro-processing and manufacturing sectors of the economy.
As a non-partisan national development agenda, the Kwahu Business Forum brings together business owners, industrialists, investors, start-ups, and major industry players to network, share experiences, and explore ways to raise capital or leverage available products from financial institutions.
Addressing the CEOs during the dinner reception, President Mahama noted that the Second Edition of the Kwahu Business Forum was well attended, and he was happy that it was becoming an institutional arrangement.
He said the idea of the Kwahu Business Forum started from what was just a conversation during the 2024 election campaign between himself and his Chief of Staff, Mr Julius Debrah in Kwahu.
The President said the Chief of Staff bounced the idea off a few people, and that he wanted to thank many of their friends who initially they had talked to about it, who agreed that it would be a good thing to organize.
“And so, it started as something small in 2024. A few businessmen came, and I want to thank all of them, because it was a bit dangerous to be seen associating with an opposition leader in a Forum like that,” he stated.
“But they mustered the courage of David and were there. And that little idea blossomed and I had promised that if everything went well, we’ll come back and organize it better.”
The President reiterated that one did not need to be a prophet to know that next year’s edition of the Kwahu Business Forum would be even bigger and better than this year’s.
“I want to thank all the institutions that were there. I want to thank all the businesses that were there.”
He said they would use that as a scorecard to measure how well they were doing in terms of growing their indigenous businesses.
President Mahama said, he believes that the private sector was the engine of growth; saying “It’s a much-hackneyed phrase, and we politicians always repeat it, but we just pay lip service to it”.
“If the private sector thrives, the economy thrives. If the private sector is happy, then the government is happy,” he said.
“You’ve done your job because it’s the private sector that can absorb and employ the teeming youth that we are producing from all levels of educational structure.”
He said, when one takes the number of people employed by the government, from watchmen right up to chief executives, one was talking about less than a million people.
Adding that about hundred thousand people were on the government payroll in a population of 33 million.
“So definitely, even if you doubled the numbers, you’re still going to have a major problem of youth unemployment. And so, the only sector that can adequately absorb the young people who are coming out is the private sector.”
The President said it means that the government must create more space for the private sector to be able to thrive and absorb these young people.
He said the private sector, including the banks that give businesses capital and credits and that was why he thinks that what happened in Kwahu was a beautiful thing; declaring that “and we intend to continue to support it and grow it”.
The President assured the CEOs of Banks and other financial institutions that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) was their friend and that they would even be more friendly than before.
He said the Government would soon rationalize all value-added taxes and make them more transparent, fair, and even, so that everybody would be encouraged to pay them.
On his part, Mr Julius Debrah, the Chief of Staff, said next year in line with the fulfillment of the objective they had set for themselves, the Kwahu Business Forum was going to take a much larger form and that they were going to have about six exhibition halls where manufacturers of agro-processing products, Banks, insurance companies and hospitality industry, and that there would also be conferences.
He announced that someone had donated 23-acre land for the establishment of the Kwahu Convention Centre for the exhibition place of the Kwahu Business Forum in 2026.
Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, the Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, underscored the collective commitment of Government and financial institutions to building a stronger, more resilient and inclusive economy.
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