Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur on Wednesday asked religious and faith-based organizations to take advantage of Ghana’s improved economic indicators to create businesses and jobs, as a way of making practical contributions to the work of God.
He said religious and faith based groups needed to encourage entrepreneurs to take care of the ethical and Biblical aspects of business, and also improve their knowledge of the economy and the business environment.
The Vice President made the call in Accra, when addressing the maiden Presiding Bishop’s Breakfast Meeting and the launch of The Wesleyan Forum of Professionals and Entrepreneurs.
The Breakfast Meeting is a milestone of the Methodist Church in its continuing efforts to create further opportunity for networking, spiritual support and mentorship, aimed at assuring the expansion of the Methodist Church in Ghana.
The Forum is as a result of the Seventh Biennial / 45th Methodist Conference last August which adopted and approved the establishment of the Forum, which would be incorporated under the Registered Trustees of the Church, a non-profit making body, and give opportunity for experienced members to mentor and counsel youthful members.
It would also facilitate community supportive Christ-centered social and entrepreneurial activism to enhance their development potential and productivity so as to enable them to be of service to their communities and the nation.
Vice President Amissah-Arthur urged actors in the business environment to take their networking more serious.
He said the improved macro-economic indicators were a positive indication of the nation’s economic performance, with declining inflation rate, growth rate of 14 per cent last year and currently at 7.1 cent, which was expected to reach more than nine per cent by the end of the year.
Vice President Amissah-Arthur said the growth rate in Ghana was better than almost all the economies in Africa.
He underlined the fact that Government was satisfying the constitutional requirement of public officials to reduce the rate of inflation to reduce the loss on resources.
The Vice President, an Economist and Immediate Past Governor of the Bank of Ghana, said the improved economic indicators provided a solid ground for the nation to develop its external economic relations and an opportunity to transform the economy.
Mr Ishmael Yamson, Chair of the Presidential Economic Advisory Counsel, said knowledge, passion and value were behaviours for the start and growth of business.
He stressed on mentoring, and challenged Ghanaians to believe in job and wealth creation, saying "we have glorified poverty for too long."
Mr Yamson asked business people to conduct business "the Bible way.”
The Most Rev Prof Emmanuel Kwaku Asante, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana, identified entrepreneurship as an attribute of God.
He noted that the Biblical call to being beyond fruitful and multiplication went from procreation to being productive in all that God approved, including business and entrepreneurship, stressing the application of faith and creativity.
Present at the launch were Ms Eva Lokko, Running Mate of Dr Papa Kwesi Ndoum, Presidential Candidate of the Progressive People’ s Party and Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, Works and Housing and Water Resources Minister who is also an Evangelist of the Methodist Church.
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