Former founder and Chief Executive Officer of UT Bank, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, has bemoaned what he says is a seeming state capture by members of the political class through their undue meddling in the business sector.
According to the businessman, this situation ultimately affects key development areas of the economy, including the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Notwithstanding all the statistics you are throwing around, there is a trend that really worries me. I will start back and say that what we use to measure the country’s performance is the GDP, which is the production of goods and services divided by the number of people to get the GDP per capita. So every country’s aim is to generate a huge amount of GDP. Now the simple position is, GDP is achieved through CEOs; owners of businesses, heads of institutions. So CEOs are in the lead when it comes to generating the GDP, which will determine the development level of the country. Now politicians are supposed to help the realm when it comes to regulation and looking out for the general good, and so on and so forth.
“What I have found in a worrying state is that it’s a situation of the dog wagging the tail; it’s the tail wagging the dog,” he observed during a panel discussion at the recently held CEO Presidential Gala Dinner in Accra.
He bemoaned the level of meddling by politicians in the business sector, noting that it directly impacts GDP growth.
“Instead of the politicians looking at the business of making sure that the realm is functioning, and regulations and interests of everybody are being held, the politicians, some of them, tend to actually decide which CEOs they will support, which CEOs they will go into bed with, which CEOs they will kill, and so on and so forth. So we don’t have the best people actually coming on top to deliver. And most of the time, it sounds as if there is state capture. As in the politicians have captured the state and they will decide what should happen to the state. But they are not supposed to be doing that.
“The state capture comes in forms like they appoint all the CEOs, and the appointment is sometimes so worrying because the people know next to nothing. But because of their parochial interest, they put them there. When they put qualified people there, because they hold the strings, these qualified people are like puppets. So they don’t deliver what is expected of them, and the appointments are most times mediocre,” he said.
Prince Amoabeng’s UT Bank had its license revoked in 2017 by the Bank of Ghana over the bank’s severe capital impairment.
Despite the reason cited by the Bank of Ghana, Prince Amoabeng has maintained that the collapse of his bank was targeted in a politically motivated act.
GA/KA
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