‘Brand Ghana office is waste of time & money’

General Manager of Digicut Production and Advertising Ltd., Mr. Richmond Lankwei Lamptey, has taken swipe at Brand Ghana office describing it as a “waste of time and money.”

According to him, it is not right to brand a nation that was facing energy challenges.

“You cannot brand a nation that has energy crises. It shows a consistent failure to plan for energy needs,” he indicated.

“This makes nonsense the talk of industrialising the country because there is no power to do same,” he added.

Mr. Lamptey made these observations in an interview with Today at the weekend in Accra.

He expressed surprise about the building policy in Ghana and wondered why it could not be revised to mandate everyone to build his/her home with solar panels on the roof.

The advertising expert explained that if it could be done on a national scale, the state would find ways and means to make it cheaper.

“Why can’t we revise our building policy to mandate everyone to build their homes with solar panels on the roof? If it’s done on a national scale, the state would find ways to make it cheaper.” …After all, the roofing sheets we use now don’t come any cheaper anyway, do they,” he asked.

He argued that the Brand Ghana outfit should not limit its branding to only national monuments and physical structures.

Instead, he advised them also to offer brand advice to all the senior national teams, particularly the Black Stars, on what to do or not to do so as to brand Ghana.

For instance, he said, “how can the Black Stars dance “Azonto” in one tournament and in less than a year, in another tournament; begin the “Gbee ohe” dance.

Mr. Lamptey contended that if the trend continues Ghana’s neighbouring countries would “take it up complete with the rhythm, change the name, and say they are originators of the dance.” He therefore proposed one common national dance for the Black Stars so as to help promote the country’s tourism industry.

He was optimistic that the Black Starts could sell Ghana faster than anybody else. He cited, for example, Asamoah Gyan’s song with Castro “Africa Girls “which was played at the Sunderland Stadium on some occasions before a match was played.

The Digicut Production and Advertising Ltd., boss intimated in the interview that;” we cannot get a National ID system going. We all know there are innumerable benefits with this for businesses and the state but we cannot simply get it to fly. What has this got to do with an office with “Branding” on it”?

He continued that in South Africa, for instance, their Art Centre, which is equivalent to Ghana’s own, “was fully networked such that when somebody buys items and shows the receipts at the airport when leaving, the South Africa authorities at the airport would ensure that they give back all the components of the Value Added Tax (VAT) which would not be needed in the country.”

He further said all new born babies were given birth certificates before they were discharged with their mothers.

He also proposed that: “All hospitals and clinics nationwide should be networked and then we can start monitoring our population correctly.”

That, according to the brand expert, would help in planning and also be a “good resource for businesses, especially advertising agencies.”

He could not understand why in 2015, people were still defecating and urinating in public.

“Why should people build without toilets in their homes? Are we so powerless that we cannot enforce our laws? That is the brand we are building,” he intimated.

He recounted that not too long ago, a community in the Ashanti region threatened to go on strike if the government did not build a new place of convenience for them.

To this end, Mr. Lamptey advised the leaders of the country to keep to their promises saying “let’s avoid the situation where the president says something on an issue and a minister says something else. It is a serious branding faux pas”!

Government officials, he added, should stop dressing “improperly for events.”