I Have Appetite For Results - Says AGI's Executive Director

Championing the interest of businesses in Ghana can be frustrating given the various hurdles facing the business community. However, AGI’s Executive Director is leading such a crusade with a smile. Maxwell Adombila Akalaare asks him why

In the year 2000 when the current Executive Director of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Mr Seth Twum-Akwaboah, joined the association, his core duty at the time did not include policy advocacy in favour of members and the Ghanaian business community in general.

It was more of an indoor responsibility; one that confined him to researching on the challenges facing businesses, providing consultancy services for members of the association and devising appropriate strategies for AGI to use in achieving its desired goals.

Little did he, therefore, know that he would end up not just in business advocacy but also leading the AGI directorate – the body that seeks to cushion things for businesses to operate efficiently and profitably in the country.

But with God Almighty by his side, a taste for results and mission to get businesses expanded and operate in a competitive environment, Mr Twum-Akwaboah has risen from his earlier position as a business services consultant to AGI to the Head of the association’s Business Development Department and now to his current position as the Executive Director.

He replaced Mr Cletus Kosiba as an acting Executive Director of the association when the latter retired from the position in June 2010.

He was later confirmed in July last year and has worked in that capacity to date.

At the moment, Mr Twum-Akwaboah said he was keen on helping reduce the various bottlenecks facing businesses in the country, especially those bedevilling the manufacturing sector.

He told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that “we as a country must take manufacturing seriously. We need to be passionate about the sector.

“Every Ghanaian living or working in any corner in the country needs to know that we all have to play our role to support local manufacturing to thrive,” he said, noting that the rising unemployment issues of late will become a thing of the past if manufacturing was taken seriously.

“In all our strategies as a country, we should be looking at how we can propel manufacturing to grow,” he added.

A desire for results
Mr Twum-Akwaboah’s aspirations at the moment are deeply rooted in his passion for his job. They are anchored on his desire for results and vision to use AGI as a vehicle to lessen the burden on businesses in the country.

“My greatest motivation in this job is to see companies’ problems solved.

“I get motivated when our advocacy initiatives are able to solve a particular company’s problem and that company is able to get back to business and continue contributing to the economy. That, to me, is my greatest motivation,” he said.

But in the midst of those aspirations come his frustrations; the very ones that make things challenging and discouraging for him and the association he currently leads.

A case in point, he said was the continuous rise in interest rates in the country despite the numerous strategies AGI proposed for the issue.

“My biggest challenge comes when I am unable to solve a problem for a company to operate efficiently. I get frustrated when I see a company closing down or operating below capacity because of the challenges they face in the system,” he said.

Although AGI has over the years advocated vigorously for a reduction in interest rates, having perceived them to be high, its Executive Director said the results of those advocacies are yet to be seen as the rates continue upward.

“We have done a lot of advocacy work on interest rates but the rates are still high. That is very frustrating to us because our members need the results and yet the results are not coming because the issue is beyond us.

“Look at the textile sector too. In the past, it was employing over 30,000 people but currently, it cannot even employ up to 3,000 and that shows that our advocacy in that sector has not yielded the needed results,” he said.

He, however, added that most of such challenges were external to the association, a situation he said partly accounts for AGI’s inability to reduce the challenges in question.

He mentioned the utility tariffs negotiations, reduction in corporate tax rate, implementation of VAT deferment for raw material imports, influencing government policies in favour of businesses, contributing to the development of the industrial policy as some of the success stories that AGI can pride itself of.

“It feels great to be young but it feels more humbling to be entrusted with such a sensitive position as the Executive Director of AGI,” he said, declining to mention his age.

“I have always admired the contributions of AGI’s presidents; past and present, the Council and staff of the association who have been at the forefront of industrial development in this country.

“My experience with these entrepreneurs shows that their interest to create businesses and stay in it is not just for purposes of making money but the desire to do something for the society,” he added.

Politics and dreams
“I am just passionate about the work and I want to contribute to the association so that I will one day look back and say I also did this for AGI and the country. I also have big dreams for AGI and pray they materialise,” the AGI’s Executive Director said.

He also disagreed with concerns that the association engages in politics, saying “AGI has always talked about the issues not politics.

“What we and our members want to see is a stable macroeconomic environment, policies that will lessen the cost of doing business among others. It does not matter which government is in power,” he said.

Personal Affair
AGI’s Executive Director is a fan of books and holds a degree in Economics and Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Ghana.

He is also “a typical family man who loves being around my family and enjoys playing various games with my three children.

“I can sleep on the floor and crack jokes with them,” he said, while winking a broad smile.

Although Mr Twum-Akwaboah said he was a good footballer and a tennis player back at high school, he said “advocacy has taken over my time.”

That, he added has relegated him to a spectator rather than a participant in the games he loves most.

According to him, Chelsea Football Club of England, is his favourite foreign football team.

“As a strong advocate of Made in Ghana, I also like local football matches and my favourite is the Kumasi Asante Kotoko football team.

My favorite food? hmmm Fufu and light soup go well for me,” he said laughing out.