General

Sometime in 2005, I was walking to the West side of Achimota School with Reverend Baiden, now Very Reverend Baiden, when I expressed my mouth-watering desire to purchase waakye across the street. Students weren’t allowed to do that; I believe they still aren’t. Surprisingly, she didn’t refuse. She only asked if I am used to ingesting rice laced with mucus and phlegm that the seller probably wipes from the snout of her young infants. I wanted to rebut that the seller washes her hands, but it was too late. I was already horrified by the mental image skillfully painted by our student counsellor. I had never thought of anything like that before concerning waakye. Very Reverend Baiden stopped then walking, looked me dead in the eye and asked, “should I buy some for you?”. I sheepishly said no. That moment stuck with me. Till now, I have trouble buying food from the streets. Very Reverend Baiden successfully triggered my brain to not only see the shiny part situations but to also realistically analyse the associated dangers. The keyword there is “realistically”. I plan to deploy this technique on Maxie as I raise her; oh I think I have a couple of scenarios where this will come in handy. Because it worked on me so so well. I have since thought about the waakye seller. Yes, I have thought about a waakye seller I didn’t even meet for 15years and counting. I didn’t know her. I wasn’t there when she was cooking but I queried myself as to why I instinctively trusted her to nourish me. Nourish me with what? Something that looked like waakye?? I didn’t think to ask her for her credentials or FDA certification. She had successfully convinced the public and me to give her money in exchange for food and yes there was a short queue waiting to be served. I am not implying malicious intent on her part. I am only detailing how I ended up breaking down a simple urge to buy waakye. Think starkly elementary and ask yourself: why do you buy food from where you do? In this article, I am trying to relay a few of the thought processes I’ve had over the years on what it means to me to own a business, a successful business. There are many definitions of “success” when it comes to owning a business. Before we go into that, don’t wander too far off on the spectrum of what constitutes a business. Almost all philosophies are not without their exceptions. Kindly bear with me. Keeping in mind that the aforementioned waakye seller has been living in my head rent-free for a decade and a half, I often wondered how I could do that. No, I didn’t want to sell waakye by the roadside. But I did fanaticise about having a business that gets to the point where people would walk in and voluntarily pay for our business. The kick is from the “walk in voluntarily” part. To me, that’s when you HAVE a business. When we considered owning a business, I told my team we absolutely have to ultimately aim at getting the public to come to us with little or no effort. Because it would be at that point that I would consider us successful at building a business, especially if we achieve it without conventional marketing methods. Good marketing begets business. So does targeted lobbying. So does nepotism. The list can be long. But customer recommendation and good reviews are cheap and effective ways that can get your business to be the preferred choice in your field. How do you get Kwame and Akua to think of your business first when they consider procuring a service you can provide? In other words, how have I been garnering, slowly but surely, the amazing powers of that waakye seller of 15years ago, who got me to instinctively choose her against my better judgement? The purpose of the below is to promote dialogue on the subject matter, as I always have with articles on the Macroeconomic Bulletin.  Let’s discuss. BRAND FAMILIARITY: Familiarity is a very powerful tool. In the 1960s, a research psychologist named Robert Zajonc discovered that when people are repeatedly exposed to a certain stimulus, they start to react favourably to it. He called it the Mere Exposure Effect, and it works. It works really well. When MTN started out in Ghana, it was really literally everywhere you go in every sense of the word. I literally couldn’t drive for 30 minutes without seeing somewhere and somehow that bright yellow box with the MTN initials in it. That consistency I believe played a vital role in them being so ahead of the other telecom companies in many respects. We engage the brands that we trust. We trust the brands that we’re familiar with. We’re familiar with what we see every day. Get it? In my own experience, even before we figured out the business activity we’d eventually be about, we got “MAXWELL INVESTMENTS” boldly plastered on the top of a storey building on a busy, major highway about a year before we moved in. Why? Frankly, I wanted taxis and trotro’s to stop there. I wanted all the mates to say “Maxwell Investments! Maxwell Investments! who wants to alight at Maxwell Investments!” … then one day, I was told that it had started happening. That day, we jumped around like little kids. It doesn’t happen any longer because there’s one building that got erected next to ours later, and yes, it’s literally blocking our shine but you get the point. EXTRAORDINARY CUSTOMER SERVICE: Human emotion is a very important factor in what we buy. Even when emotion comes second, there will be many others that will give you the efficacy you seek and at that point, emotion jumps in again. People like people they like; it’s that simple. People gravitate to those that make them feel warm. There’s a saying that people will forget what you did but never forget how you

MSMEs are less robust and more vulnerable to fluctuations in the national economy than big companies. COVID-19 has revealed that the state of world economies can sway at any moment. This is the time SMEs need to tactically shift a few gears around and evolve with the ongoing changes or risk the eventual death of their businesses. We have recently seen a reconstruction of how we interact with our financial institutions and how they interact with us. It has seen the rise of FinTechs in the nation and National Digitisation efforts. The rules are changing everywhere. Things are still evolving. It’s time for MSME’s to evolve or get left behind. Like the popular meme says: Improvise, Adapt, Overcome! I’m just adding the unspoken but apparent “OR SUFFER!”. The recent sector reconstructions have been about defining “bottlenecks”. A bottleneck, in general terms, is simply a situation that limits a process or activity from progressing. So if you prepare a glass of tea with just tea and water while aiming for a certain tea:water ratio, then whichever of these ingredients that finishes first as you aim to maintain this ratio is your bottleneck. The bottleneck ingredient limits the making of the kind of tea you like. The minimum capital for banks was initially pegged, then it was later scaled up too. That’s the tightening of a bottleneck, to limit the activities of certain banks from progressing, and for good reason. It’s to ensure that, for the next stage of banking activities, financial institutions play in their weight class. Think of a sieve, with adjustable holes. If you tighten the holes, fewer grains will fall through. If you loosen it, the sieving process progresses faster. And we are going to see some tightening and losing of bottlenecks all over the different areas of the vast economy as I realised with the passing of the New Companies Act. This act loosened a couple of bottlenecks, like previously sticking with the category of businesses stated in the initial filing. It also tightened others, like what qualifies one to be a company secretary. Defining an MSME. I don’t think there’s a definition of a Medium Small to Medium Enterprise (MSME) that is accepted worldwide. The definitions I was able to dig up clearly show that it depends on who is defining it and from where they are defining it. If a person from one sector defined MSMEs today, he would define it differently if he changed sectors. MSMEs are usually characterised by the number of employees, their capital, and sales turnover. MSME classification by size is a very good way to go about it because everyone can utilize this easy and simple method, but each sector would still come to different results.  A company of one size would be considered small in a sector where the market is huge with many competitors. This same company would be considered as big in a sector with generally smaller companies or fewer players. So MSME definition is a matter of perspective. Government Agencies usually prefer classification through a number of employees, even though recently many governments have opted to classify using their turnover. The role of SMEs in national development. It is generally acknowledged that MSMEs are a powerful engine for a country’s economic advancement and work creation. MSMEs have the capacity to fuel economic growth because they readily explore new opportunities that lead to new jobs and by so doing, they extend Ghana’s tax base while being a major driver for innovation with an endless supply of ideas and relevant skills. The creation of new companies is a significant indicator of a good, economic atmosphere that enables enterprising activities. The majority of big companies started out as MSMEs and the number of MSMEs far outnumber any others. MSME’s also employ a lot more people, yet their full potential remains remarkably untapped for many reasons. Difficulties facing MSMEs. Small to Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) all over the world have similar characteristics and so face similar obstacles. Cultural, societal, legal and other institutional differences change the understanding and the approach to fixing these issues in each country. One previously stated problem facing MSMEs is the increased vulnerability to economic fluctuations that typically would not affect the larger companies. Uncertainty with present situations because of the core “hustling” nature of MSMEs also stifles most of the long-term planning and strategic innovation. MSMEs are unable to cushion against even the regular risks that come with growth and expansion. Insurance cover, for instance, will seem like a luxury when your operating capital can all be sucked up with one good order from one good client. The most common MSME issues have to do with inadequate access to funds, taxation, problems with the workforce, lack of coordination and inefficient internal communication mechanisms or irregular information exchange. What can be done for MSMEs? All I want for Christmas is a PUBLIC CREDIT RATING SYSTEM. The creation of credit-rating agencies will greatly propel MSMEs that are building credibility and only need a good chance. It’s a self-explicable concept. My wife is obsessed with her credit score in the UK because of all the goodies that good credit brings. A rating system like that which encompasses MSMEs could be the springboard that shoots forward the capable MSMEs earlier than they would have been. Ghana wins in the end. Could asset-based financing be the answer? It’s not new. It tends to get messy but without a credit rating, without a reputation or long record and most times without even audited books, what can be done? Some banks are making strides in aiding MSMEs reach their full potential… and also, of course, calling dibs on the potential today-thousandaire-tomorrow-millionaire MSME owners out there. Barclays I know has some attractive MSME programs out there that aids many business owners. Zenith bank is also very responsive to the peculiar ecosystem that is ‘running an MSME’. There are others. Do a little research and give them a ring. So MSMEs, you’re not alone! Help is out there. Demonstrate your potential and

Who are GAWU? Ghana’s General Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU) is the nation’s biggest trade union organizing farmers and agricultural workers both in the formal and informal sectors of our country. GAWU has been working together with smallholder farmers and other non-wage rural workers since formation on the 9th of February, 1959. We are currently working in over 200 communities across all the regions of Ghana. The Union is non-partisan and hence not affiliated to any political party in Ghana. The ultimate goal of GAWU is to organize Ghana’s agricultural workers in the formal and informal sectors and to champion the cause of agricultural workers through consistent empowerment, policy advocacy, and proper representation at the highest levels. GAWU is one of the affiliates of The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF), an international federation of trade unions. The IUF is composed of 425 affiliated trade unions in 127 countries representing over 10 million workers. GAWU joined the IUF in 1994. As GAWU, we pride ourselves in the over 60 years of advocating, promoting and negotiating for Decent Work in the Agricultural Sector of Ghana. What is Decent Work? Before there was a United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012, there was a GAWU that was fighting alongside, advocating for, and negotiating together with Ghana’s farmers for a better economic standing from their daily work.  That is where our pride comes from. It’s from the FACT that the many decades-long activities of Ghana’s General Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU) ties in very strongly with Goal 8 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Decent Work and Economic Growth. The 4 Pillars of Decent Work illustrate its true meaning. Going by the above definition, the United Nations educate us that no country is immune to a lack of Decent Work. Everyone is entitled to Decent Work. The jobs and economy of the future will be urban. It is estimated that about 60% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2030. This highlights why proper care and advocacy for our agricultural farmers, who are predominantly rural folk, should be prioritised. Agriculture in Ghana is known to be the main source of work for those in our rural communities. A significant portion of Agricultural activities also involves the formal sector. Access to Decent Work for those in Agriculture is directly correlated to national development because Agriculture remains the backbone of Ghana. By extension, the work of GAWU affects each and every Ghanaian. Our work towards the Decent Work agenda is cut out for us. About 45%-90% of the world population already operate within the informal economy. Worldwide, there are over 150million children in Child Labour. Women earn anywhere between 4%-36% less than men. All these are to be tackled if Decent Work is to be attainable for all. Many local governments all over the world have already taken measures to ensure that the solutions to these challenges are being worked at. GAWU and the Decent Work Agenda. GAWU has extensive experience in seeking to enhance the right to organisation and collective bargaining in Ghana. GAWU addresses the rights deficits in the world of work in the rural areas by seeking to extend and grow social protection to the benefit of rural informal economy workers, especially women. We also enhance the participation of the rural working people in decisions that implicate their quest for decent work and life. One of GAWU’s aims is to tackle the manifold manifestations of Decent Work deficits in the rural areas of Ghana. We do this through the further consolidation of the organisation of small-scale producers and champion their focused pursuit of furthering their Decent Work agenda. We build on our organisations by focusing on communities in all the Districts we operate in, so as to work towards developing social dialogue between the organised district level structures and the decentralised governmental structures, even including the district Directorates of the Ministry for Food and Agriculture.  GAWU uses its recognition at the national level to leverage the processes of establishing district level social dialogue mechanisms. GAWU’s representation at various national structures and its leading role in the Food Security Policy Advocacy Network (FOODSPAN) greatly contributes to their establishment in an inclusive manner. In relation to the Decent Work agenda, GAWU has already been promoting productivity, employment creation and income-generating activities among the rural producers through its collaborations with organisations like the FNV. We feel that the time has come to scale-up, expand geographical coverage and consciously pursue the mutually reinforcing strategic objectives of the Decent Work Agenda, in a manner that throws up more lessons for the extension of trade union organization to the rural and informal economy. In a move to adapt to the dynamic nature of modern economic trends and challenges, GAWU also appointed the first-ever Business Advisor to the Union. This move was to improve the understanding of and reduce the vulnerability of farmers in their entrepreneurial endeavours. There have been a number of Forums held by the Business Advisor in conjunction with GAWU that help educate the farmers on Fair Market Practices, alongside relevant discussions on market policies, modern innovation, and learning from one another. The Leadership Leadership in GAWU has over the decades been vital to the creation of our successful strategies and internal cultures. It, therefore, goes without saying that a strong leader has been instrumental in GAWU’s recent strides towards materially contributing to Goal 8 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Currently, the General Secretary of GAWU is Mr Edward Kareweh, a renowned trade union leader that has risen through the ranks of GAWU, occupying the roles of Local Union Secretary, Regional Industrial Relations Officer, Head of Industrial Relations, Deputy General Secretary of the Union, and now General Secretary of GAWU. Mr Kareweh draws on his experience as a seasoned organiser, negotiator and a farmer himself. Mr Kareweh has been involved in various policy discussions on the implications of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), World Trade Organisation (WTO), World Bank, the International Monetary Fund