President John Mahama has shared his sadness over how Ghanaian employees try to take advantage of their employees and make money of them when offered an opportunity to work.
He recounted an instance, which he described as the most regrettable experience in his life, when he addressed business owners at the Kwahu Business Forum on April 19.
The two-day event, which was attended by foreign and local business owners, was under the theme, “The Future of Business: The Role of the Financial Sector.”
According to President Mahama, the practice “is an indictment on our human resources.”
He therefore charged the captains of industry for cooperation to nip it in the bud.
“There are several businessmen who have told me that one of the major hindrances they face in business is not capital. It is getting trusted people to work with.”
“When somebody comes to work for you, he thinks your business is a platform for him to build his business. I bought a bus for a relative to run transport business so that he can look after the family at home and stop disturbing me on my small parliamentary salary.”
“He gave it to a driver who was a relative, a good driver though. The first thing he did was to put a carrier on the bus. And anytime you see the bus, it had more load on top than inside. So, the axle broke down and it was the most regrettable experience in my life. When the axle broke down, they came to me to buy a new axle.”
“So, the reason for buying the bus had been defeated. anytime the bus broke down, they will come to me for money to repair it. So, it was costing me more money to repair the bus than if I was just ‘Momoing’ the money to them.”
“But you know what happened? This driver used to live in the family house. When he was driving the bus, he procured a land, he started building a house, the house reached lintel level when the bus finally broke down. And by then, I had had enough so I refused to repair the bus and decided to dispose of it. So, I sold the bus.
This was more than ten years ago. And since I sold the bus, where the house reached, lintel level, it is still at lintel level up till today. It is so difficult to get trusted people to work with. So, we must look at that aspect of the restraint to industry.
I know that some businesspeople and industrialists are going out of the country and bringing in foreigners to come and manage their businesses. It is an indictment on our human resources, and it is something that we must begin to think about and find ways of creating a core management that is dedicated to working to building the business.
What they forget is, as the business grows you get better remunerated, you benefit more. But if you want to suck your pound of flesh out of the business and kill it and move on, then no industry is going to survive.
That is an issue we need to take up so that we all can think about how to create more opportunities for our young people.”
