In this Global Platform video Kojo Aduhene, CEO of LMI Holdings, emphasizes the importance of industrialization for the African continent, as well as the key role the private sector can play in securing the necessary infrastructure. Regional integration, sustainability, and job creation will be key to future growth.
Transcript:
Ghana and Africa must industrialize.
To do that we need to have an enabling environment. We need to make sure we have in place all the infrastructure that will be needed.
The most important of these is the provision of power.
The governments of various African countries seem to be establishing the necessary framework.
Ghana has encouraged private participation in the power sector, but that has been in the generation segment. We need to move on to the distribution of the transmission segments as well.
If governments do not have the money to invest in these, they should allow the private sector to invest. There are other services that need to be provided.
If you look at the provision of water in Africa, less than 20% is for drinking water.
For sanitation, it is even worse.
Then you have got the provision of fast internet access, which will be needed for industry. Anything that supports the creation of a bigger regional market is very necessary for the development of the industrial sector in the country.
If you look at the countries in the African market one by one, the markets are not big enough to drive industrialization. We need to integrate to make use of various raw materials so we can be competitive.
The African Continental Free Trade Area is excellent because it forces countries to take decisions.
I am excited about it, especially for a company that wants to be active Africa-wide in five- or 10 years’ time.
For regional integration, transport is crucial.
I think we should develop other forms of transport that are more environmentally friendly and cheaper, like rail, like waterway transport.
We must train our youth. The world is advancing at such a fast rate with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
We are building six STEM schools in Ghana and distributing them around the country. These STEM schools would focus on artificial intelligence, 3D printing, cloud computing, and cybersecurity.
Once we have them, we need to create jobs for the youth, and we are doing this by building technology parks.
If we don’t look at ESG goals now, we will pay a price in the future. So, it is very important that at the start of any business venture we bear in mind the social and environmental goals that are being set.
Renewable power generation is crucial.
If it is done to scale, renewable energy can be cheaper than the sources we have now. If you take the case of Tema Free Zone, we are building a 16-MW solar farm in one of our warehouses.
This would generate power for two companies and provide 10% of our power needs. The cost of power from the solar farm is cheaper than what we buy from the national power generator. Power supply is more assured because it’s in the enclave and it’s greener.
Companies buying it can go back for the carbon credit and it gives us an environmental badge.
There is a lot of migration from the rural areas to the urban areas and this must be planned for properly.
One way of doing so is to develop smart cities where we can use technology to make living easier, to make the provision of leisure, traveling to work, and all that much simpler.
In smart cities, we are not just talking about expensive, high-end areas.
We are also talking about areas with fast-growing populations where we need to provide affordable housing.
One of the things that LMI is doing in Ghana is providing 2000 affordable homes a year to residents at our industrial Dawa Smart City.
We want to replicate this in the West African sub-region to start off, and then look at Africa as a whole.
It is critical that we don’t just look at industrialization, but also at providing certain incentives, and certain amenities for the people that are going to make industrialization a success.
Kojo Aduhene is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of LMI Holdings with 27 years’ post qualification experience in the construction industry. He holds a B.Sc. Degree in Civil Engineering from Leeds University. After his University education, he worked on a number of prestigious projects in the UK, including the Channel Tunnel, which links mainland UK to continental Europe and the Docklands, a hugely successful urban rejuvenation development.
He returned to Ghana in 1992 to set up his own company, John Murphy Construction, which has developed into what can arguably be described as one of the largest Civil Engineering, Property and Utility Conglomerates in Ghana- LMI Holdings.
His passion is teaching and his driving ambition is to make AFRICA RISING a reality
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Mr Albert Essien is a retired banker and the former Chief Executive Officer of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) where he spent 25 years rising through the ranks to become Group CEO in March 2014.
Prior to becoming Group CEO, Mr Essien served as Deputy CEO and Executive Director for Corporate and Investment Banking for 2 years. Mr Essien had previously led ETIs operations in Anglophone West Africa (excluding Nigeria), Eastern and Southern Africa. He is widely credited with the growth of the Ecobank brand in these markets.
Mr Essien started his banking career in 1986 with the National Investment Bank (NIB) in Accra, Ghana and joined the Corporate Banking Department of Ecobank Ghana in 1990.
Albert Essien holds a degree in Economics from the University of Ghana and is an alumnus of the Executive Development Programme of INSEAD (France/Singapore).
He is also an honorary fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, Ghana. Mr. Essien joined the LMI Board in May 2012
Mr. Justice Kusi-Minkah Premo is a lawyer by profession and is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Minkah-Premo & Co. (Legal Practitioners). He was called to the Ghana Bar in April 1984 and is a member of the Ghana Bar Association.
He has previously served as the Former Vice President of the Ashanti Region branch of the Ghana Bar Association, the Former National Vice President of the Ghana Bar Association, the Former member of the General Legal Council (Body responsible for training, certification and discipline of lawyers in Ghana), the Former member of the Advisory Board of Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Dept and as a Former Senior Lecturer of the Ghana School of Law.
Currently he is serving on the boards of Minkah Premo & Co, UT Holdings Ltd., UT Life Ltd. and the Ghana Police Council.
He holds an LLB (1981) from the University of Ghana, a BL (1984) from the Ghana School of Law and an LLM (2005) from the University of Ghana.
Mr. Justice Kusi-Minkah Premo joined the LMI Board on 1st January, 2016.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla mauris dolor, gravida a varius blandit, auctor eget purus. Phasellus scelerisque sapien sit amet mauris laoreet, eget scelerisque nunc cursus. Duis ultricies malesuada leo vel aliquet. Curabitur rutrum porta dui eget mollis. Nullam lacinia dictum auctor. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Orci varius natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculu.
Mauris rhoncus orci in imperdiet placerat. Vestibulum euismod nisl suscipit ligula volutpat, a feugiat urna maximus. Cras massa nibh, tincidunt ut eros a, vulputate consequat odio. Vestibulum vehicula tempor nulla, sed hendrerit urna interdum in. Donec et nibh maximus, congue est eu, mattis nunc. Praesent ut quam quis quam venenatis fringilla. Morbi vestibulum id tellus commodo mattis. Aliquam erat volutpat. Aenean accumsan id mi nec semper.