The Co-founder and Chairman of the Venture Capital Group Investrade International and member of the Council Of State, Paa Kofi Ansong, has called on Chartered Economists in the country to utilise the knowledge acquired in their professional programmes to provide technical support to the private sector.

The private sector, he said, was dominated by people who had little to no knowledge in economics hence the need to support it for increased productivity.

Mr. Ansong, who attributed the lack of knowledge to the low availability of sustainable wealthy individuals in the country charged the Chartered Economists to help change the narrative by offering technical advice to players in the private sector.

“The narrative should be that whatever we have learnt should change the behaviour else people would just waste their money because they are not well-advised,” he said at the 11th Induction ceremony of Association of Certified Chartered Economists in Accra last Saturday.

The induction ceremony, which was organized by the Association of Certified Chartered Economists (ACCE) in collaboration with the Global Academy of Finance & Management (GAFM), saw a total of 45 individuals being inducted as Chartered Economists in the areas of Financial Economics, Managerial Economics, Energy Economics and Economic Policy Analysis, among other economics professional designations.

The Deputy Director-General of Internal Audit Agency, Dr. William Offei-Mensah, in his remarks, cautioned the inductees not to stop learning because they had completed their education.

“The best time to learn is not when you are under examination pressure, but when you have time to understand and digest to have authority,” he said.

He added that the qualification carried a big responsibility which required constant learning. 

Practice your profession and embrace partnership with other professionals - Prof. John Gatsi

Speaking at the 11th CPD of Association of Certified Chartered Economists, Prof. John Gatsi who chaired the session called on members to distinguish themselves by establishing professional firms to make impact.

He said economists cannot function effectively in corporate practices and within public economic space without some level of appreciation of project management, accounting and auditing, procurement, data management skills, people management and regulatory developments.

He further advised members to be ready to form partnerships with other professionals such as accountants, procurement and supply chain professionals, corporate governance and leadership experts.

Prof. Gatsi asked members to take Continuous professional development (CPD) seriously because it is the platform to focus on emerging developments to help revive and sharpen professional skills of members to remain relevant and benefit from continuous learning.

The Chairman for the ceremony, Prof. Gatsi further tasked members to make use of population and housing census data to analyze the possible effects of the 1.75% e-levy on livelihood, complexity for small business accounting and internal remittances among others. He called for rethinking about credit policies towards manufacturing entities, as take and start paying just after the loan is disbursed is disruptive to businesses as it contributes to default.