The Minister for Public Enterprises, Joseph Cudjoe, has counseled public entities in the country to trade among themselves for financial sustainability.

According to the Minister, buying from and selling to each other are initial steps to guaranteeing financial sustainability, expansion and jobs for the people in the public enterprises sector. 

Mr. Cudjoe, made these statements when he visited the Ghana Shippers’ Authority (GSA) on 26th August 2022, as part of his working visits to state enterprises to familiarize himself with their operations and interact with the managers on their challenges.

The Minister was fascinated to learn from the Management of GSA that it is part of their policies to buy from other state entities such as purchasing their water from GIHOC Distilleries.

Mr. Joseph Cudjoe, stated that public enterprises should try as much as possible to buy made in Ghana goods since it affects the country positively.

“It is imperative to buy products that are made in Ghana because while it creates wealth for citizens and the country at large, it helps stabilize the cedi”, the Minister explained.

He observed that countries such as South Korea and Israel intentionally ask their state entities to buy from each other and also from the private sector in their respective countries to generate and sustain wealth.

 “We used to have our own brand of radio called Akasanoma and a car brand we manufactured here in Ghana called Boafo, at the same time South Korea had its LG and KIA brands. We started around the same time and they have theirs still functioning and creating wealth for their country but we watched ours collapse”, he observed.

 “Trading amongst ourselves, is the initial step to help improve on product quality and services, create avenues for expansion,” Mr. Cudjoe indicated.

He stated that, the entities can begin by allotting a percentage of jobs needed to an entity that is in a particular industry.

“For example, all entities with printing needs can give a percentage of those jobs to the Ghana Publishing Company and other portions to Ghanaian corporate entities. That way, Ghana Publishing will at least break even and pay for services like electricity to the Ghana Electricity Company and Ghana Water Company. And that is the way to go”, the Minister envisaged.

The Public Enterprises Minister commended Ghana Shippers Authority for being among the few entities patronizing made in Ghana products, thus giving jobs to public entities.

According to the Minister who doubles as the Member of Parliament for Effia Constituency in the Western Region, inter-trading in the state entities is very important to him since it has the potency of helping solve the over 65-year-old problem of loss making, high indebtedness, non-performance and collapse of state enterprises.

“It is so important to me such that when we introduced the Public Enterprises League Table (PELT) and awards, as a metric to measure the performances of state entities and to engender competition among the public enterprises, inter-trading was a criteria”, the Minister noted.

The award for the inter-trading specified entity of the year 2020 award went to the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).