CEO of Bulk Oil Distributors, Senyo Hosi has hit out at government for failing to have a uniform and consistent position on local content policies.
Senyo Hosi lamented that the situation doesn't encourage investments in the country as investors are required to adhere to different regulations and policies which affects their business.
He advised that as a country there was a need to develop a standard local content policy that all other institutions and subsectors will work from as a broad framework.
He stressed that having such a framework will make partnering and skill transfer easy between foreign investors and locals.
"You don't have local content haphazardly managed. It is a very important feature. You have various sectors of the economy and various managers of the government saying different things about local content. Energy has a view, Finance has its own view, GIPC has a view and Mining is saying something, when you have different government officials saying different things it doesn't help so we need to have a coherent local content policy so that any kind of legal framework from a subsect of the economy will take inspiration from so that Ghana as a country will speak one language as far as local content is concerned else that inconsistency will not encourage proper investment" Senyo Hosi explained.
The Bulk Oil Distributors CEO was speaking on the sidelines of a conference aimed at brainstorming on the issue of local content in Ghana in Accra organised by the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) and the European Business Organisation-Ghana on the topic "Creating Impactful Local Content Regulations For Ghana"
The Executive Director of the European Business Organisation, the body of European business and investors in Ghana, Nico van Staalduinen established the essence of such a conference saying "all we want to do with this conference is try to make people aware that you move Ghana into a slippery path and we have to be very careful because the consequences could be dire not only for the investors but also for the Ghanaian economy"
As a caution to government, Senyo Hosi advised that some protection be given to companies and investors who take the initial risk of establishing themselves in fields or sectors before local content laws are passed.
He urged government to put in place incentives and measures that will redirect investments into areas that are seeing little resources and investments with proper local content regulations.
"Local content is important but it must be structured in a way that gives predictability, certainty to help direct capital, not to areas where locals have already built competence and have capital flowing but to other sectors of the economy that have not been well stimulated and optimised so generally our economy can grow in a productive sense. Else we will be seeing economic growth and everybody will say I don't feel it in my pocket. So that consistency in policy and that respect of investor contracts has to be in place" he added.
