Polytechnic lecturer calls for abolition of Common Fund

The Head of Entrepreneurship and Finance Department at the Kumasi Polytechnic is calling for the abolition of the Common Fund to district assemblies.

According to Solomon Kwarteng Fokuo, the current financial arrangement does not give room for district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies to be innovative in employment creation and revenue generation.

He says increase in taxation can be justified only when the assemblies support local businesses through training to improve productivity. He notes “if you train your people very well, they'll be proactive, productivity will be very high and taxing them won't be a problem. But now what is happening? They are not innovative enough to generate revenue – they sit down and automatically the Common Fund will come and they will build KVIPs and put their names on it”.

Mr. Fokuo wants the study of entrepreneurship prioritized for chief executives and other assembly staff for them to be proactive in revenue generation.

The polytechnic lecturer spoke to Luv Fm at a seminar on individual career planning and development. It was organized by the Center for Community Empowerment (CeFORCE), a community-based social project of the Grace Baptist Church in Kumasi.

He charged undergraduates in the country's tertiary institutions to use their project works as strategic platforms to launch themselves on the job market. Mr. Fokuo says “the practice of copying other students' projects is a disincentive for students to tap into business opportunities”.

He emphasized the importance of group projects to curtail the practice of plagiarism and encourage projects that solve societal problems.

A member of the CeFORCE Board of Director, Rev. Robert Asante, emphasized the need for students and young people to be guided to plan and develop their lives in order for them to be marketable on the job market.