Dr. William Brafu-Insaidoo (left) and Dr. Eric Osei-Assibey (right) at the dialogue
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has urged government to speed up the passage of the Public Private Partnership Bill of 2016.
According to the Institute, the passage of the Bill will help leverage funds from the private sector and also widen the scope of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund to explore possible sources of raising funds to support businesses.
Speaking at a dialogue on the theme “A thriving Private Sector: the key to sustainable socio-economic growth”, William Brafu-Insaidoo, a senior fellow of the Institute, noted that the basic challenge of the private sector had been the lack of political will and inadequate budget allocation.
He said in tackling the numerous challenges facing the private sector, the government should lead the formulation and implementation of coherent policies such as the PPP Bill 2016 and the implementation of PSDS II (Private Sector Development Strategic II) that would create a conducive environment for the venture capital industries to thrive and extend their coverage to other parts of the country.
According to a research by the Institute, some of the challenges that face the private sector include limited access to long term credit and high cost of credit, erratic energy supply and high utility charges, among others.
Mr. Brafu-Insaidoo noted that as regards energy supply, the government should increase gas-based power generation, reduce cost, increase productivity and make it financially efficient.
A senior fellow of the Institute, Eric Osei Assibey, stated that the government should demonstrate commitment by creating an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive.
“That will mean that the government has to step up investment in infrastructure that will help reduce the cost of doing business in Ghana,” he said, adding “some of the infrastructure required are energy reliability and affordability, road networks, among others, so that you don’t really mind where to site your business if the transportation is good; it will be easy to bring products to the exit points. If that does not happen, we are going to see over concentration of business in the capital”.
By Abigail Owiredu-Boateng & Nii Adjei Mensahfio