Business News of Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Source: Graphic Business
The Ghana Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GCCI) will today host Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) to a breakfast meeting in Accra.
The meeting, which will provide the platform for industry movers to take stock of their activities and their contribution towards national development, will be on the theme; “Moving from a lower middle income to upper middle income — the role of the private sector”.
Attendance is free but strictly by invitation. It would have Mr Terence R. Darko as the chairman. The guest speakers include Mr Alhassan Andani, managing director, Stanbic Bank, Ghana; Dr Michael Agyekum Addo, CEO, KAMA Group of Companies, and Prof. Kwame Ameyaw Domfeh, Dean, University of Ghana Business School, Legon.
Meanwhile, the GCCI has pledged that it will continue to influence government policies which will benefit the private sector to promote the overall development of the economy.
In its bid to move forward, the chamber said it was collaborating with the Ankara Chamber of Industry from Turkey to establish a $300 million Organised Industrial Zone in Ghana to serve as a hub for both foreign and local entrepreneurs.
Cataloguing its achievements in a paper made available to Daily Graphic, the chamber said it had chalked up a lot of achievements, including participation in various trade fairs in Ghana and abroad, playing a pioneering role in the establishment of ECOBANK, ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme, Federation of West African Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and the Ghana Shippers Council.
The chamber also advocated the establishment of land banks to help businesses acquire land for their operations and the extension of “Loss Carry Forward” policy for all companies. The chamber could trace its roots to the first chambers established in the then Gold Coast called the Gold Coast Chambers of Revenue, the first of it being formed on January 10, 1850 by the Danes. At the time, there were independent chambers established at the trading centres in the country.
These were the chambers of Kumasi, Cape Coast, Sekondi-Takoradi, Accra/Eastern Province, Keta/Ho, Kpandu/Hohoe, Swedru, Suhum/Nsawam, Tamale, Sunyani and Koforidua. As expected these were the areas of active or buoyant trading activities. After independence all these chambers were consolidated into one national chamber, by Executive Instrument (E.I. 196) by the then Prime Minister, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
The unification became necessary in order for the government to deal with one body rather than a splinter of groups with a common goal. It was also for the group to have a common front in addressing the issues of its members.
The E.I. was later amended by the Statutory Corporations Act of 1964 (Act 232) and the Legislative Instrument (L.I. 611) of 1968, which was passed on December 11, 1968. The LI 611 thus begins the modern Ghana Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GCCI) which later had to incorporate Industries, since the members were not only traders.