Businesses must be security conscious — Aning

The Director, Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research (FAAR) of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre (KAIPTC), Dr. Kwesi Aning, has urged businesses to be interested in the security matters generally in the country since this has a direct bearing on their operations.

Speaking at an open-day event organised by the KAIPTC, the security expert said businesses need a better understanding of the economics of insecurity so as to be able to respond to any security threats that may impact their businesses.

“Generalised forms of insecurity incur direct impacts for businesses, resulting from the disruption of economic processes and activities,” he said.

“For example, if we were to disaggregate the number of times a police officer guarding a bank has been shot and the fear of people coming to that bank over the next couple of weeks, and we disaggregate the cost to that bank, then we will see how it will impact negatively on the bank.

“Insecurity also inflicts significant long-term negative impacts on small, less developed businesses. Irrespective of whether you are multi-national company or not, insecurity causes significant challenges. It is not the actual performance of an act that threatens a business, but fear that the threat will be actualised and the actions we are to take to prevent it.”

Insecurity, he indicated, also decreases confidence in the business community; and he went on to outline what KAIPTC does to help the business community beef-up their security.

“At KAIPTC we have the capacity to explain the structure and the behaviour of threats and their agents. We will be able to help you in understanding in a much more nuanced manner the economic impact of such insecurities on your business and how to turn them round.

“We have the capacities and the relevant knowledge in a time-sensitive and time-bound manner, which will ensure that your profit margins increase. Finally, we have both the facilities and the training skills to provide the capacities that you need,” he said.

The open-day event was on the theme Security situation in West Africa and beyond; impact on the society and businesses.

The Minister of Defence, Dr. Benjamin Kunbour who was the guest speaker, congratulated KAIPTC for taking the initiative to organise the open-day and provide a platform to engage various stakeholders toward ensuring peace and security.

“The provision of peace and security is a shared responsibility that needs to be wholly embraced by all stakeholders, and I encourage you to participate fully in today’s open-day. Please make good use of this opportunity to engage with the KAIPTC while you explore areas of collaboration for mutual benefit,” he said.