Brand Ghana calls for integrated policies

Mr. Mathias Akotia, Chief Executive Officer of Brand Ghana has proposed a broad-based integrated approach with strategic policies and programmes aligned with industries and citizens to help build a competitive country brand.

Speaking at a roundtable dialogue to discuss Africa’s competitiveness under the theme “Africa’s Improved Competitiveness and Intra-African Trade”, he argued for collective efforts to promote the brand image of the country.

Mr. Akotia said branding must first start with the citizens and efforts must be made to ensure that everybody is satisfied before it is sent to the outside world.

“People should behave in a way that will promote the country’s brand. Specific policies and programmes must be initiated to position the country as a strong brand.

“The Brand Ghana initiative will be vigorously pursued to improve the country’s competitiveness,” he said.

Mr Akotia said: “Branding really shows who we are as a country and where have reached.

“It takes collective efforts to make a country distinctive, and we need to rally the support of all to get there,” he added.

Ghana in 2012 was ranked the 85th most valuable nation-brand out of a total of 138 countries with a brand value of US$18.1billion, representing a 36 percent increase over its brand value of the previous year.

On the African continent, Ghana is ranked the 9th most valuable brand behind South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya among others.

The programme spearheaded by Brand Ghana Office was in collaboration with Brand South Africa and aimed at mapping out strategies to promote the country as well as the African continent.

It was again to contribute to the discourse on what needs to be done to improve the continent’s competitiveness and intra-African trade. It was also to sensitise the public on the need to rally support for the agenda and promote the country positively to the outside world, thus enhancing the country’s socio-economic growth.

Mr. Miller Matola, Chief Executive Officer of Brand South Africa, said nation-branding is a conscious effort by all to tell positive stories about the continent -- at the same time addressing challenges facing the continent.

He explained that the critical elements of branding are where a nation starts and where it is going. There is a need to deconstruct the existence of a nation’s brand to involve collective efforts of all the citizenry.

“Africa’s competitiveness and Intra-African trade is dependent on individual countries’ competitiveness, therefore it becomes incumbent upon each country to deliberately take action to achieve these objectives,” he said.

Ms. Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Foreign Affairs, observed that South Africa’s brand image has been one of the most successful stories on the continent, and there is a need for all to learn from it to re-brand this country to make citizens feel proud of being Ghanaians.

She called for awareness-creation and national cohesion to achieve that goal, adding that the media must be more committed to the task by setting a positive agenda for the rest to follow.

“Ghana has created the brand image of being the most peaceful and stable country on the continent; the media needs to desist from glorifying evils and delve into human interest stories that will inspire society and also build a quality brand image for the country.

“There is lots of work going round that we do not have to wait for an invitation to before we write on such issues,” Ms. Tetteh remarked.