THE Vice Chancellor (VC) of the Ho Technical University (HTU), Professor Ben Quarshie Honyenuga, has called on the government to ensure that its initiatives like the 24 – Hour Economy is not managed by government institutions, but implementation should be left in the hands of the private sector to avoid failure.
Professor Honyenuga said the private sector remained the engine of growth, and for the country to achieve significant development, the sector needed to be strengthened to facilitate relevant business activities that would promote growth of the country.
The VC made the call at an inaugural lecture on the topic “Navigating a Model of High Performance Organisation in Ghana: Reflections on a Chameleon Business Environment” held on Wednesday in Ho.
He explained that government initiatives and business activities were supposed not to be managed by government institutions, and that the role of government in the implementation of businesses was to provide an enabling environment for the private sector to flourish.
Professor Honyenuga said business fundamentals showed that it was not appropriate for the government to initiate businesses, owned and managed by government institutions, saying such state-owned companies would definitely fail as experienced in the history of the country.
He stressed that it was important that the government stay away from participating in implementation of businesses, adding that it was vital for the government to stay away from participating in implementation of businesses, and create a sound foundation for businesses to thrive.
According to the VC, Managing Directors of institutions and companies should be innovative to ensure growth, saying that leaders of institutions and companies who could not promote development of their outfits had failed and outlived their usefulness.
Professor Honyenuga said “leaders of companies and institutions should not pretend to be managing affairs while there was nothing to show in terms of development”, and stressed that leaders must always be creative in bringing the needed change that would promote growth.
He observed that bureaucratic delays in decision making and policy affected Ghanaian businesses, which was a major setback to the development of the country, which must be changed to pave the way to addressing what he described as “chronic uncertainty and financial strain” among Small Medium Enterprise (SME) operators.
Professor Honyenuga said quality workforce, long term orientation, continued improvement and renewal were characteristics that promoted high organisational performance, which was a model that organisations and companies should crave for to ensure high performance.
The VC of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development at Somanya in the Eastern Region, Professor Eric Nyarko-Sampson, who chaired the programme also performed professorial vestment, commended Professor Honyenuga for the achievement.
Professor Nyarko-Sampson admired the hard work of Professor Honyenuga who started his academic journey at the then Ho Polytechnic as a lecturer, became the first professor and the first VC of the Ho Technical University. He therefore urged lecturers of the HTU to emulate the VC.
FROM SAMUEL AGBEWODE, HO
