Dr Kofi Amoah, Economist and businessman
Interest rates of loans are too high for entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship cannot be practised in a vacuum
It’s a challenge if interest rates are high and potential customers don’t have money to buy products and services.
Ghanaian economist, businessman and Chief Executive Officer of Progeny Ventures International, Dr Kofi Amoah, has said entrepreneurship is practised in the armpit of the society and not in a vacuum.
According to Dr. Kofi Amoah, it’s a challenge if interest rates of loans are too high for entrepreneurs and their potential customers, on the other hand, don’t have money to support their businesses or patronize their services.
Speaking on The Lowdown on GhanaWeb, the businessman said, “Entrepreneurship cannot be practised in a vacuum, it’s practised within the armpit of the society. And if there are challenges within the society, their potential customers don’t have money to support their products or services and interest rates of the loans they got is too high, then it will be a challenge for them.”
He added that one of the blockages to Ghana’s economic growth is the free trade mantra where borders are opened to allow foreigners to sell their goods at an unregulated price.
Dr. Amoah stated that this damages the prospects of the local young entrepreneurs.
“One of the areas we have to look at is the free trade mantra, where we have opened our borders and anybody from anywhere in the world can come in and sell anything at any price. When you do that, you are damaging the prospers of your local young entrepreneurs,” he added.
Citing an example to buttress his claim, Dr. Amoah said a start-up business would collapse if a company with a 15-year-old experience in China is selling the same goods as the Ghanaian trader.
“If we start a pencil business and there is a company in Brazil that has been making pencil for the last 15years and there is a company in China that has made it for 20years and one in UK, and they can all come and sell in the Ghanaian economy while you and I are here struggling to improve our quality and bring our prices down then we don’t have a chance” he explained.
He further stated that, if indigenous brands are struggling does not mean the owners are not focused but because the environment is not conducive for them.
“Horseman shoes is a very aggressive young man but if he is facing problems now, it’s not because he is not focused but because the environment is beginning to turn negative for him and that’s going to swallow his business,” Dr. Amoah said.