Ghanaian Entrepreneur Dabone Atta Snr Picks Award In Japan

Dabone Atta Snr, a Ghanaian entrepreneur, has been presented with the 'Best Alumni' award for the month of April by Japan's Graduate Institute of Policy Studies (GRIPS).

Atta Snr. is the deputy board chairman of Foklex Media Awards Ghana Limited.

The Tokyo-based GRIPS's award recognizes alumni of the institute whose contributions to their fields of profession have been exceptional.

It also honours those who are GRIPS ambassadors across the globe.

Nominations for the awards are normally done by former students, professors and staff of the institute, DAILY GUIDE gathered.

The criteria for the selection include: professional accomplishments in their fields of expertise, academic excellence, continuing interest in and support of GRIPS's activities, among others.

In an interview with GRIPS prior to the presentation of the award recently, Mr Atta Snr touched on some economic and social transformation projects currently ongoing in Ghana.

He said, “Ghana currently has a developed and well-functioning capital market which attracts both domestic and international portfolio flows to support the government's development programmes. This is hinged on strong fiscal discipline and clearly outlined debt management strategy.”

The government, he told his Japanese lecturers, has also introduced a number of education and health policies to develop its human capital base.

In the next five to 10 years, Ghana will have a highly skilled labour force capable of taking advantage of the rapid technological change to boost productivity and increase economic competitiveness.

These positive developments notwithstanding, according to the entrepreneur, Ghana faces a challenge of weak institutions, and it is for this reason that the government is taking necessary steps to address some institutional lapses and revamp the public sector to deliver effectively and efficiently.

Mr Atta Snr stated, “As a debt analyst mindful of the rising debt levels, one of the key challenges I face in my work is how to align economic and social policies to ensure that the government can raise adequate funding either externally or domestically, to fund key pro-poor social interventions while managing the debt levels and other risk exposures.”

According to him, “I envisage this challenge to become even more pronounced, as Ghana moves to a self-reliant economy, with decreased access to concessional funding.”

By Melvin Tarlue