Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce Ghana, Emmanuel Don-Kwame, says there has been a silver lining to the coronavirus pandemic as it brought out the ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit of Ghanaians to produce for both domestic consumption and exports.
“COVID has been more or less having a blessing in disguise. Previously, we’ll prefer sitting back home and importing from other countries. But the disruptions in global supply chains have forced people to think,” he says.
Building on this new momentum, Mr. Doni-Kwame says the ICC will be organizing an Africa ICC Africa supply chain summit in October that will convene its key partners, experts within the ICC global network to come to share ideas with Ghanaian businesses and entrepreneurs.
“We want to bring everybody here so that we find a solution to develop a sustainable supply chain including financing. The target is how to develop a sustainable supply chain system for Ghana, Africa, and the rest of the world,” he adds.The ICC boss says his office has been very aggressive with supporting businesses that have been hit by the disruptions of trade and lockdowns as a result of the pandemic.
“A lot of businesses were hit with the disruptions and the lockdowns so there was a global call for corporate bodies and the private sector to work with various governments to try and find solutions on how to save lives and how to save livelihoods.As the global voice of the real economy, ICC took it upon itself to work with its network in 130 countries representing 45 million companies to draw on all the expertise that we have available to come up with solutions,” he narrates.
Mr. Doni-Kwame says ICC’s contributions and partnerships looking ahead will focus more on entrepreneurship, adding that a platform has been created globally to be drawn on ICC expertise and can be adapted locally.
“It improves the competitiveness of SMEs and also improves the competencies. We intend to draw on all aspects that we have within our network,” he says.
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