Kufuor campaigns for local businesses

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has urged President Akufo-Addo to support local businesses to play their core role of serving as the engine of growth of the economy.

He made the call as the special guest at Jospong Group’s annual thanksgiving service at the group’s head office in Accra last Friday.

While congratulating the Group’s Executive Chairman, Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong, for his contributions towards the protection of the environment, which has given birth to employment opportunities for Ghanaians, Mr Kufuor added that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) believes in creating wealth to overcome the menace of poverty.

Dr. Agyepong’s project, he went on, ties in perfectly with the NPP’s open policy of strengthening the private sector as the engine of growth of the economy.

“Samsung and other Korean companies were protected by their governments to grow and today the world hails them as giant global brands,” he noted.

The former president debunked claims that the NPP, as a capitalist party, has nothing for the ordinary people, adding that the party is open-minded with the interest of the people at heart.

“The private sector can only be enhanced when government puts in place appropriate measures,” he went on, explaining that after all, governance is about people.

“We cannot use poverty to solve poverty; we need to create wealth to overcome poverty and for this, I advise that people must stop envying people who are making progress and rather support projects of credible investors to build the nation,” he charged.

Mr Kufuor stated, “A hardworking investor like Joseph Agyepong should not be envied but allowed to operate, provided he operates within the corporate rules, paying taxes to government and providing employment opportunities for the people.”



Former President Kufuor expressed satisfaction that President Akufo-Addo is pursuing a similar policy as his (Kufuor’s) when he was president – an agenda, which according to him, is about enhancing the private sector agenda.

The service brought together ministers, some members of the clergy and representatives of diplomatic missions in Ghana.

The Executive Chairman of Jospong Group, Joseph Agyepong, lauded management and staff for what he described as their very high level of team spirit, which according to him, had brought them this far.

Apostle Emmanuel Gyesi-Addo, International Missions Director, administering the word, spoke about the importance of expressing gratitude to God, no matter the situation.