THE Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has urged local industries to maintain fiscal discipline in their expenditure to ensure a stable and predictable environment for the private sector to thrive.
He said the government's strategies for accelerated national development were based on living within current predictable revenues, which would be enhanced on a continuous basis.
The Vice-President made the appeal when he addressed the 20th Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG) performance awards in Accra last Saturday.
He said expected revenues from the production of oil and gas, scheduled to come on stream in 2010, would be a windfall and gave the assurance that the government would administer the resources equitably to accelerate infrastructural development and eliminate poverty nationwide.
Mr Mahama said in spite of the discovery, the country was not “yet out of the woods”, since no amount of donor support would yield tangible results if not utilised in an atmosphere of transparency and backed by the will of Ghanaians to build the nation into a model.
He said very often “we focus on credit as the only bottleneck in the growth of our businesses but we have serious problems with entrepreneurial skill development, with uptake of technology, as well as problems with research into consumer behaviour and market trends”.
He said in view of the problems with entrepreneurial skills development and research into consumer behaviour, marketing research was a useful tool, especially in the current global financial environment where consumers were hanging on to their precious income and spending only on what they considered the most important purchases.
The Vice-President said the government was dedicated towards directing the affairs of the nation along a path that could withstand the current global economic turmoil.
He explained that for Ghana to avoid corporate failures of national magnitude, as had happened elsewhere, corporate Ghana ought to desist from thinking about marketing in terms of advertising and sales.
He said successful marketers and managers who did not have insights into deep fluency in marketing metrics, as well as competency in numeracy, might find it difficult to reach the senior executive levels because corporate enterprises would increasingly wish to entrust their businesses into safe hands.
Mr Mahama said he was glad to observe that the CIMG was responsive to the environment of its operation and had, therefore, chosen “The Global Economic Downturn — A Case for Marketing Metrics” as the theme for this year’s awards, noting that the theme sought to raise the consciousness of marketers and corporate Ghana.
He explained that the global downturn was as a result of corporate greed, avarice and reckless administration, lack of adequate regulation of capital markets and the financial sector which had thrown the whole world into apprehension and despair.
The Vice-President said as of now, the country had not been directly hit by the hardest effects of the downturn, such as the dramatic collapse of banks and other corporate institutions.
The National President of the CIMG, Mrs Josephine Okutu, said the turbulent world economy required that nations adopt appropriate policies that would protect their economies against the shocks being experienced all over the world.
She stated that an economic upturn would require the active participation of marketers and gave the assurance that as partners the CIMG was ready to offer advice to the government to ensure rapid socio-economic development.
Twenty four organisations and four individuals were honoured at the event for their performances and contributions to the marketing business.
The Managing Director of Lowe Lintas, Mrs Norkor Duah, was adjudged the Marketing Woman of the Year, while the Chairman of the GLICO Group of Companies, Mr Kwame Acheampong Kyei, emerged as the Marketing Man of the Year.
The Chief Operating Officer of MTN, Mr George Andah, won the Marketing Practitioner of the Year award, while the Head of External Marketing of the Ghana Commercial Bank, Mr Cedric McAddy, won the Marketing Student of the Year award.
The organisations which received awards were Toyota Ghana Limited, Melcom, State Insurance Company Limited, World Vision, Ghana and Kasapreko Cocoa Liqueur.
The rest were Healthlife Premium Juice, Asanka Locals, Akate Farms, Cal Bank, Japan Motors Trading Company, Ghana Oil Company, Vanguard Assurance, Close Up Salsa, Unilever Ghana Limited, TV Africa, Joy FM and Kasapa.
See page 45 for more pictures
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