Ghana hosts Namibia for Bilateral Business reception

Accra, Ghana - September 13, 2024 -  Ghana and Namibia have commenced a three-day business networking reception aimed at fortifying bilateral relations through state-owned enterprises.

The event, themed "Enhancing Namibia-Ghana Relations through State-Owned Enterprises," takes place from September 11 to 13 and features a 16-member Namibian delegation led by the Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises.

The delegation seeks to benchmark with Ghana's State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) and affiliated institutions to gain insights into best practices in governance, management, and performance of public enterprises.

In an interview with channel One news, , Louise Shixwameni, Executive Director at the Department of Public Enterprises under Namibia's Ministry of Finance and Public Enterprises, emphasized the need for deliberate efforts to create opportunities enhancing indigenous business ownership.

“Because of our colonial past, most of our key economic sector have not been owned by indigenous Namibians so government have created state-owned companies around key economic sector to correct that market failure and ensure that as we restructure, public enterprises do not increase economic disempowerment," she said.

“While we liberalise these economic key companies that are owned by the state, as we liberalise, we ensure that there is sufficient enabling environment for the private sector and that private sector that I talked about is a private sector that is indigenously owned for a local entrepreneur who is an IT expert who can feel that I can compete with a telecom company because if the telecom company is so powerful and is state-owned, that telecom company, the indigenous Namibian or indigenous Ghanaian may not be able to participate in it," she added.

Also, John Boadu, Acting Director-General of SIGA, echoed the sentiment by advocating for a decrease in government interference in the operations of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), promoting greater autonomy and independence for these entities.

“We want a situation where government interest in state owned enterprises will reduce to less than 30 percent. Government control in terms of appointment on boards and CEOS will reduce to zero. The only reason one will be on the board was to meet a certain criteria, the set skills that is required for one to turn those businesses around, whether you are NPP, QPP ZY and P and all that so that we can get the value worth of the amount of money we spend in running these businesses," he stated.

The reception marks a significant step towards strengthening economic ties between Ghana and Namibia, fostering cooperation and knowledge sharing between state-owned enterprises in both nations.

Source: Lead News Online