Ghana Can Host West African Business - Mureithi

Ghana has what it takes to become the manufacturing hub of West Africa, a business executive with experience in the African market has noted.

The Managing Director of Unilever West Africa, Mr David Mureithi, said the country’s peaceful political atmosphere, the good port facilities, an improving macroeconomic environment and the start of oil production all made Ghana very conducive for businesses to conduct their West African operations here in Ghana.

He said unlike neighbouring West African countries that were mostly landlocked and lacked stable political atmospheres, “Ghana has good ports and a stable and sustainable democracy and that makes the country well placed to become the manufacturing hub of West Africa.”

But for that to happen, the Unilever MD said the country needed to utilise its competitive advantages including providing existing businesses with the right operating climate, which he said was necessary to help lure others in to invest.

Mr Mureithi made the observations at a Unilever Press soiree in Accra last Friday.

His comments come at the time that many global giants in banking, auditing and manufacturing are siting the headquarters of their West African operations in Ghana.

Unilever, for instance, recently made its Tema office the headquarters of its West African operations (minus those of Nigeria).

Although Mr Mureithi believes the country can leverage on the oil and gas sector to source gas for industries at less expensive rates, he said the present flaring of gas in Takoradi sent wrong signals to businesses in the country.

Ghana, he said, needed to make the provision of gas to businesses a priority as an alternative and less expensive source of energy to manufacturing companies instead of flaring it.

The flaring of the gas, according to him, amounted to the “burning of millions of Ghana cedis”; a development that was a strain on the government.

Touching on the 2011 operations of Unilever Ghana, Mr Mureithi said “We achieved a turnover of GH¢240.9 million, representing a growth of 33 per cent over the previous year.”

Such an achievement, he said, was in spite of the high cost of production that the continuous increase in commodity prices in 2011 had had on the company’s operations.