Mr Felix Yaw Bani, the Chief Executive Officer of Centrepoint Supply Chain Solutions Limited, operating at the Freezones Enclave in Tema, has called on the government to support start-up companies as they grow.
Mr Bani, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Tema on growing a business in Ghana, said start-up companies could not grow without the needed government backing.
He said the sustainability of such businesses in Ghana was a real challenge, as most companies folded up within the first few years of their establishment due to an unfavourable business environment.
He explained that, as a wholly Ghanaian-owned company, his company struggled to meet the demands of the challenging business environment over the past four years of its existence.
Mr Bani mentioned the exchange rate as one major concern that had an adverse effect on their supplies, as most of the materials for most start-up businesses were imported from other parts of the world.
He said, “It is a real concern that the cost of doing business in Ghana is collapsing a lot of start-up companies and it is very difficult to sustain a business in the country.”
He suggested that to put such companies in a better position, the government should consider giving them a tax break for a number of years to help them find grounding.
Other support could be in the form of grants, which would help reduce the cost of capital needed to invest in the business to make it survive, he suggested.
He lamented that contracting loans in Ghana for business purposes was expensive due to the current high interest rates of about 45 per cent by the banks.
The CEO said implementing the proposed measures would not only cushion businesses to grow, but also provide jobs for the teeming unemployed youth in Ghana.
This would also lead to the generation of more revenue for the government as the companies and their employees would pay taxes to the state.
GNA