Seasoned Economics lecturer at Wisconsin University College of Ghana, Dr. Sam Worlanyo Mensah has emphasized that the challenges of entrepreneurship in Ghana are primarily rooted in the rising costs associated with running a business.
In an interview with Univers Business on the registration process of businesses in Ghana being a demotivator for young entrepreneurs, Dr. Mensah highlighted that the minimum capital for establishing a business, the cost of utilities needed for business operations as well as tax charges are some factors contributing to increased costs involved in running a business.
“For [a business owner] it all requires some level of minimum capital. There are some minimum capital requirements and so you need to be able to them before you look for additional capital to run your business.”
“So the day to day operations are quite expensive and if you look at cost of utility, water, electricity, and the tax system, the tax regime is not favorable for businesses.”
Suggesting measures to make running a business cost-effective, Dr. Mensah called for reduction in taxes to secure the going-concern of businesses.
“And I wish that we should review [taxes] downwards because once we create an enabling environment, then people would be able to produce and the government would now have more to tax rather than imposing higher taxes, which takes all their profit away thereby causing redundancy at the workplace and also increasing the level of unemployment.”
Adding on, he encouraged the youth to pursue entrepreneurship in light of partnerships and corporations.
“Entrepreneurship is the way forward and so what I would suggest is that instead of us taking it as an individual decision, sometimes we can collaborate. So it can be joint venture. During the registration process at the Registrar General, we have columns like that so we can be able to spell out shares very well.”
Further explaining the need for the youth to partner in establishing businesses, Dr. Mensah affirmed that higher heights were going to be attained with collaboration among diverse expertise.
“Sometimes the individuals who have the money do not have the technical know-how and those who have the technical know-how do not have the financial muscle so when the two join together, then I believe they would be able to achieve higher heights [in local businesses].”
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Story by : Mawuena Abena Dossah | univers.ug.edu.gh
