Players in Procurement and Supply Chain Management are being challenged to focus on delivering customer value than cost-cutting.

This, according to the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), is critical in preventing loss of investments in the process of procurement.

Speaking at the Pan-African CIPS Supply Chain Industrialization Summit at the Conference Centre here in Accra, Chairperson of the Institute Stella Addo said Ghana’s quest to industrialize would not be realized until quality is prioritized over price.

She said procurement has come a long way and it needs to take its rightful place, it is time to move to the next level by driving shareholders and stakeholders value.

“To achieve this we must understand and speak the language of the business and stakeholders; drive the entire value chain, push the boundary of value and be a solution for the societal issue,” Mrs Addo said.

According to her, this can be achieved by creating awareness and executing long-term solutions for cost cutting and value addition in the profession.

She said the emphasis should not be on price and cost saving as “most of our colleagues are constantly searching for cheaper prices at the expense of the long-term value of the service or product we buy.”

Mrs Addo cautioned that the cheaper price does not always mean the best value-adding that, “a second look should be taken at procurement which is about 70-80 percent spender of most of our organisations.”

Good procurement, she noted, is always good for the stakeholder and for societal change and development in the society at large.   

 Chairman of the Strategic Board of CIPS Africa, Prof Douglas Boateng said the choice of imported products over locally manufactured ones by procurement officers defeats the country’s industrialization agenda.