Ghana must apply ‘Mugabe laws’ - Herman Chinery-Hesse

The founder of SOFTtribe, the largest software company in Ghana, Herman Chinery-Hesse wants Ghana to adopt and implement some ‘Mugabe Laws’ that would allow more Ghanaians own more companies.

The 2007 indigenisation law by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe compels foreign firms to cede 51 per cent of shares to local partners, in a move the President said would benefit Zimbabwe's majority black population disadvantaged by colonial rule.

Speaking on Morning Starr with host Nii Arday Clegg Tuesday, the Ghanaian software entrepreneur said Ghanaian citizens must be empowered to play key roles in indigenous companies and avoid the situation where foreigners are chosen to head local companies or awarded local contracts.

“What we need to do is to start favouring ourselves...we need to learn to be selfish, we need to learn to look after each other and put Ghana first.

“It is not up to the politicians only, it is also up to us to put them under pressure. We can’t stand around, as for politicians, globally if you leave them alone they would do what they like.

"It is up to the populace, the populace have to take them down, if you leave them alone, they are wildcards… what we need to do is to constructively work with our public officials and make it impossible to do what we don’t want them to do.

“The other day, I saw a Petroleum Act that they have passed in Nigeria, that is the kind of laws we should be passing on everything and some of the Mugabe laws, we need to apply them here, like 51 percent ownership and all that, that is the kind of thing we need to do,” Mr. Chinery-Hesse popularly referred to as the Bill Gates of Ghana said on Starr 103.5FM.