Ghanaian entrepreneurs are parasites – Tony Aidoo

Head of Policy Monitoring and Evaluation at the presidency, Dr. Tony Aidoo says the country’s hope of expanding the economy and creating sustainable jobs through private sector is illusory.

That, he said, is because the local entrepreneurs were not creators of capital but consumers of capital generated by the state.

“You cannot develop because what is happening is not the real essence of capitalism; our entrepreneurs do not create capital; they are consumers of capital; they are not like the entrepreneur in the developed capitalist countries who create capital; ours are parasites,” he state.

Dr. Tony Aidoo was contributing to discussions on the reports of widespread corruption involving state agencies and government contracts with private organizations on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Wednesday.

He said the so-called private companies in the country relied on patronage to thrive and therefore lacked the mettle to survive on their own.

“You find all these companies, Number 1 in Ghana Club 100 or whatever; examine the very foundations of establishment of the company and you will find that the status and everything pales into insignificance; such an entity cannot operate in a matured capitalist country because what it uses is patronage; take out the patronage and the capacity is non-existent; they are at best clients,” he claimed.

He believes Ghana has a value system that vitiates from the principles and values of a pure capitalist state and therefore, “the sheer pretentiousness that you can use the capitalist mode of socio-economic to develop a country like Ghana is fallacious.”

Government contracts with some private companies have come under intense scrutiny by the media.

Joy FM’s reports of financial malfeasance at the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Agency (GYEEDA) necessitated the setting up of a committee to investigate the operations of the agency.

That committee cited private companies which entered into contracts with the state under GYEEDA for wrongdoing and recommended the abrogation of some of the contracts.

Government says it is investigating officials of those companies but the contracts have yet to be abrogated as recommended by the committee.