GHANA HAS POTENTIAL TO BECOME ECONOMIC LEADER - PROF NWANKWO (p.50) 01-09-08

Story: Kofi Yeboah
A LECTURER at the University of London Business School, Prof. Sonny Nwankwo, says with the current economic performance, Ghana has the potential to become the leader in economic growth in Africa.
He, however, said in order to achieve that goal, the country had to develop and promote its unique potential competencies.
Prof. Nwankwo made the point in Accra last Thursday when he delivered a lecture on, “Developing a customer orientation”, which was organised by the University of Ghana Business School.
He said by the turn of this century, it would be Africa’s turn to launch into development, but pointed out that there was the need for the continent to develop its competencies to make that dream come alive.
Prof. Nwankwo said it was important to tell the story of Africa better, particularly with respect to its cultural sensitivity and relationships between companies and stakeholders in the development of relationship markets.
He said globalisation opened new opportunities for new markets and urged African countries to take advantage of those opportunities.
Prof. Nwankwo said there was the need to develop a philosophy on simple marketing strategy, but he was quick to add that the process of putting forward a marketing strategy was more important than the strategy itself.
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe, who chaired the function, said there was a huge gap in database available in Africa and called on research institutions to help provide the right information for the development of strategies for Africa.
Attendance at the lecture was very encouraging as every space in the conference room of the Erata Hotel at East Legon, the venue for the programme, was occupied, compelling some people to stand in and outside the room to listen to proceedings.
Many of the participants were, however, disappointed because they could hardly hear anything in view of the poor quality sound of the public address system.
The situation worsened when the rain set in as the sound generated from the splash of the rain on the roof of the conference room virtually drowned the lecturer’s voice.