The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) has established a Credit Union aimed at raising funds to support members expand their businesses.
The Credit Union was specifically to provide credit and other financial services to member firms at competitive rates.
President of GNCCI, Nana Appiagyei Dankawaso 1, said it was also designed to inculcate savings habit in members, attract new members as well as retain existing members.
He was speaking in Accra yesterday when he led a delegation from the Chamber to pay a courtesy call on the management of the New Times Corporation (NTC).
The delegation included Mark Badu-Aboagye, Chief Executive Officer, Victoria Hajar, 2nd Vice President, Frederick Adu Amoako, Chief Operation Officer, Dr Emelia Assiakwa, Vice Chairman of Accra Regional Chamber and Isaac Barry, Tema Regional Chairman.
They were received by acting Managing Director of NTC, Martin Adu Owusu, Editor of Ghanaian Times, David Agbenu, acting Editor of Spectator, Georgina Quaitoo, Marketing Manager, Alfred Koomson, Chief Accountant, Baffour Kyei and acting Chief Internal Auditor, Samuel Amoako.
The visit was to strengthen relations between the two entities and explore new areas of collaboration.
As part of efforts to support conducive business environment creation in the country, Nana Dankawoso 1 said the Chamber would develop a business journal dubbed Business Pulse, designed to document and track growth and performances of businesses, industries and policy support institutions in the country.
It would focus on business performance and growth metrics, risk exposures, mitigating strategic and other indicators which were useful in providing reliable data to inform government’s policies and programmes aimed at enabling businesses to stay innovative and competitive, he stated.
In addition to the establishment of the Business Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) centre to resolve litigation between members of the GNCCI, he added that the Chamber has partnered the International Finance Corporation to equip the business community with relevant knowledge and skills to strengthen their governance framework.
He said the 3rd edition of the Chamber business awards, which seeks to celebrate the best Ghanaian businesses and personalities, would come off on November 23 this year and commended the NTC for supporting initiatives by the GNCCI to promote private sector growth in the country.
He called on the NTC to intensify strategies to improve information flow between businesses and the public.
On his part, Mr Owusu reiterated the NTC’s commitment to partner the Chamber towards enabling the private sector to expand and create employment opportunities for Ghanaians.
As a media organisation, he said the NTC was proud to have played critical roles in the achievements of the GNCCI since its inception stating that “this relationship will only go stronger and stronger.”
He commended the Chamber for the various initiatives aimed at enabling businesses to grow and expand and noted that the NTC would play its advocacy role in ensuring realisation of intended targets.
As a partner in growing Ghana’s private sector, Mr Agbenu called on the Chamber to make information accessible to the media to enable effective propagation of the GNCCI’s activities and programmes.
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS
