According to economist Reverend Dr. Samuel Worlanyo Mensah, Ghana needs additional specialist banks to advance the country’s development objectives.
The majority of local businesses and entrepreneurs rely on banks for beginning capital and other forms of financial support, according to Rev. Dr. Mensah, the executive director of the Centre for Greater Impact Africa, which highlights the need for specialist banks to help various industries.
He also urged the government to take more measures to support industrialization and productivity by fostering an atmosphere that will allow the local population to flourish and be competitive on the world market.
Rev. Dr. Mensah stated at the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office’s Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue platform.
The GNA Tema Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue is a media think-tank platform for state and non-state and commercial and business operators to communicate to the world and address global issues with Ghanaian expertise.
Rev. Dr. Mensah lamented that most banks in the country were running the normal universal banking activities, and most were not ready to help local entrepreneurs to stand on their feet.
He again said most of the small businesses have been left stranded because financial institutions that supported them had been dissolved.
He said the lack of a strong national development plan module to develop the country contributed to the economic crisis the nation is experiencing recently despite COVID-19 and the touted Russian-Ukraine war.
He said the government must plan in a way that, in the next ten to 15 years, it would raise solid entrepreneurs who could support the economy, reiterated that the banking and financial sector cleaning exercise was laudable at that time it was undertaken but unfortunately COVID-19 pandemic had revealed that the decision was not economically motivated.
Mr Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager of Ghana News Agency reiterated that the media landscape is going through rapid transformation, and the old system of institutions organizing face-to-face seat-in events at a big conference hall is passing away.
He said, “from now onwards don’t expect more invitations to seat-in events, newsroom managers must adopt new means for news gathering, and dissemination.”
Mr Ameyibor said: “Due to global communication and information transformation, state and non-state institutions that used to organize conferences, meetings, seminars and invite journalists to cover are rapidly resorting to the use of Zoom, Skype, and other web-based platforms for meetings.
“Now web-based meetings have come to stay and the old system of organizing a big conference is dead and gone, media practitioners should not be looking for event focus assignment again.”
Mr Ameyibor said GNA-Tema has moved ahead to set up parameters to engage strategic stakeholders consistently to prepare the ground to be more active and profitable to society.