State contracts alone won’t build business giants – GIPA CEO

Ghanaian businesses must build lasting strength beyond government contracts to become business giants, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Authority (GIPA), Simon Madjie, said.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition recently, he questioned whether dependence on state contracts offered a sustainable route to growth.

“The understanding is that should the growth be organic when you become more stable, or should it just be one where the government gives them contracts, and then afterwards, what happens next?”

He warned that such dependence could produce businesses driven by political opportunities rather than sound commercial principles.

“So then they become like political entrepreneurs, and not necessarily business people who are following the principles that will allow their businesses to grow.”

Madjie cited Kasapreko as an example of a Ghanaian business that had grown by understanding and developing its value chain.

He argued that building strong domestic businesses had long informed state interventions. He pointed to local content regulations, Ghana Exim, and agencies that provide capital to Ghanaian enterprises.

“It's to build strong local businesses.”

But he said the ambition now extended beyond helping businesses succeed within Ghana. According to him, the new GIPA law gives the authority the power to support Ghanaian businesses investing abroad.

He explained that the objective was to help successful local companies enter other African markets and expand globally. Such businesses could expand overseas and bring profits back home.

Madjie warned that Ghanaian companies needed to pursue opportunities beyond the domestic market as competition increased within the African Continental Free Trade Area.

Locally, he said GIPA was mapping investment opportunities across districts and regions to help businesses identify prospects they might otherwise miss.

The authority was also organising regional investment roadshows and encouraging Ghanaian businesses to explore opportunities outside their existing markets.

“We are encouraging Ghanaian businesses to come along to the regions to see the opportunities that are in those regions, as well, so they can also take advantage of them.”

For Madjie, supporting domestic investors remained essential to the government’s success.

“No government will succeed by diminishing the influence of its local businesses or domestic investors. No government.”