Government must grow local industries - CEO BEIGE Capital

Government, should among other things, consider building giant corporations of Ghanaian-ownership “intentionally” as such corporations have the capacity to drive large scale economic activity which further goes a long way to impact on the lives of a larger chunk of the citizenry.

The Chief Executive Officer of BEIGE Capital, Mike Nyinaku, in an interview with B&FT, believes that a Ghanaian-owned economy is one in which nationals drive a sizeable chunk of the activities within the economy, and are therefore the ultimate beneficiaries of the fruits of labour.

“I believe development is happening but I also know it’s at a snail pace”. It could be that we are not able to identify the opportunities, don’t have the men to move into execution or have simply refused to make it happen to our advantage. Or at best, one could say our leaders are expecting that changes of extra-ordinary proportion should just happen by chance.

Mr. Nyinaku, who has led BEIGE Capital to become one of the leading indigenous financial institutions in the country, cited the case of the Asian Tigers during the times of their economic revolution.

He mentioned that the leaders of those countries – in order to allow their local economies to prosper – adopted trade barriers that were to their ‘selfish’ advantage at the expense of Europe and the West particularly.

“When the South Koreans wanted to build their economies, they intentionally blocked their boundaries to the rest of the world to avoid the influx of foreign goods.

“The population was forced to consume goods produced from within, and they found means to ensure that the quality of these goods kept improving year after year until now that they have attained world class statuses… if you are in doubt, look up the history of the first KIA vehicle produced and trace that beginning to what KIA has become today..” he said.

He observed that although the country seems to be developing gradually, we are not positioning ourselves to be able to compete amongst the committee of world nations, explaining that “we are rather positioning ourselves as a play-ground for the world to come and play”.

A binding development plan

Mr. Nyinaku proposed that there should be a way to enforce adherence to the country’s national development plan.

The fortunes of the country should not be left at the discretion of a political party. Citizens should elect parties to come and execute the contents of our national agenda, so these parties can be assessed based on their ability to execute our agenda.

“I do not doubt the capacity of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) in its on-going task of drafting a national development plan.

“My concern is the commitment of our political leadership to this agenda. How many of such documents have we not seen before and what became of them…he said”

“And honestly, I can’t also blame these politicians as a greater majority of the populace who root for them are in themselves uninformed hence are unable to decipher if the leaders are acting ultra vires or not.

“Poor Ghana! If only there was a way to make adherence to the agenda binding and also if there was an Electoral College system in place, things could have been much better. All Ghana needs is one committed and effective leader. One whom I’d call, the executioner.”

Mr. Nyinaku suggested that people in leadership and authority must make it a point to identify experts and appoint them into national positions,

He added that the country can boast of enormous experts in various fields who can help position the country on a growth pedestal, “we have people who are very capable of leading the country.”

He also argued that not everybody in a position of authority is in essence a leader.