"Ghana’s drive to nurture local businesses into continental powerhouses faces a major hurdle: an unpredictable and often opaque relationship between government and the private sector."

This challenge took center stage at the recent Kwahu Business Forum, where stakeholders called for a rethinking of how the state engages domestic enterprises.

Speaking at the event, Alex Apau Dadey, Executive Chairman of KGL Group, emphasised that Ghana’s ambition to produce large-scale African business champions requires more than occasional support.

"Support for local firms should not be reduced to political convenience or short-term transactional arrangements, but should instead be anchored in genuine partnership, strategic investment and an environment that allows credible businesses to grow and reinvest with confidence,” he said.

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He cautioned that many public-private arrangements on the continent fail to create broad value because they prioritize extraction over service.

“Not every public-private partnership is a real partnership,” Dadey noted, adding, “Some are merely private profit wrapped in public language.”

For such collaborations to succeed, he argued, they must deliver measurable value, improve services, generate sustainable revenue, and earn public trust.

Dadey urged businesses to shift their mindset from “how much can we take?” to “how much value can we create together?”, a distinction he sees as the difference between a mere contractor and a true corporate citizen.

He also called on political leaders to stabilize the business climate by addressing policy inconsistency, regulatory unpredictability, delayed payments, and selective enforcement.

According to Dadey, national corporate champions cannot be built by exhausting domestic entrepreneurs. When Ghanaian businesses thrive, the benefits ripple far beyond shareholders, touching workers, suppliers, communities, and the state itself through increased tax revenue.

He concluded that support for local firms must be guided by fairness, transparency, predictability, and respect for genuine value creation rather than political patronage.

FKA/EB

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