President John Dramani Mahama has emphasized that, more than financial limitations, one of the largest challenges facing company owners is the difficulty of obtaining reliable staff.
Mahama explained the problem with a personal story during his speech at the Kwahu Business Forum on Saturday, April 19.
In the hopes of giving his family financial security, he related how he previously purchased a bus for a relative to operate a transportation company.
But the driver—who was also a relative—put his personal interests ahead of the company’s, altering the car in ways that caused it to break down frequently.
The bus eventually had to be sold, and with it, the driver’s personal goals came to a standstill. As the president pointed out “I’ve heard from a number of businessmen that finding reliable partners to collaborate with is a bigger obstacle to their success than funds.
If someone works for you, he believes that your company will provide him with a platform to grow his own business.
“It is not only him who has had that experience. I have had it too. I bought a bus for a relative to run transport business so that he can look after the family business at home and stop disturbing me on my small parliamentary salary and he gave it to a driver who was a relative, good driver though.
“The first thing he did was he went and put a carrier on the bus and anytime you saw the bus, the bus had more load on top of it than in the bus. And so what happened? The axle broke down, and it was the most regrettable experience in my life.
“When the axle broke down, they came to me to buy a new axle. So the reason for buying the bus had been defeated. Anytime the bus broke down, they’ll come to me to come and repair it, and they were causing me more to repair the bus than if I had just been ‘MoMoing’ the money to them.
“But you know what happened this driver used to live in the family house while he was driving the bus he procured a land he started to build a house, the house reached lintel level when the bus finally broke down and by then I had had enough so I refused to repair and decided to dispose of it, and so I sold the bus.
“This was like several years, maybe, yes, more than 10 years ago. And since I sold the bus where the building reached lintel level, it is still at lintel level, even till today.”
Considering the wider implications, Mahama pointed out that many business owners face comparable difficulties since workers frequently see their employers’ companies as launching pads for their own endeavors.
He noted that the inability to locate trustworthy local staff has led some Ghanaian business owners to turn to employing managers from other countries.
The president urged Ghanaian professionals to adopt a culture of commitment and honesty in business management, calling for a mental change.
He emphasized the importance of creating a solid foundation of reliable people who are dedicated to expanding companies rather than taking advantage of them for their own benefit.
“So what he says is very serious. Getting trusted people to work with and so we must look at that aspect. I know that even business people and industrialists are going out of the country and bringing foreigners to come and manage their businesses.
It is indictment on our human resource and it is something that we must begin to think about and find a core of management that is dedicated to working to build the business.”
