Private Enterprise in Ghana

This week i read about a politician in Ghana telling the youth as well as new graduates to establish their own businesses instead of looking at the government sector for jobs. In fact this is an issue that both the ruling government and the opposition parties have raise several times and frankly I think they should be lauded for encouraging free enterprise. After all, it is a widely accepted principle throughout the world that the private sector is the engine of growth and that is where most of the opportunities in new innovation and speedy salary increases lie. However, I don’t think these politicians should stop at just telling the youth to turn to the private sector for job opportunities. These public officials will have to back their rhetoric with the right incentives to refocus the attention of the youth on the tremendous opportunities that exist in the private sector. In any case, innovation in private enterprise is their most potential part to economic development.
In fact it is not that the youth do know about the opportunities in the private sector (you don’t need to have a PhD to know about the flexibility of work and the unlimited salary opportunities in the private sector), but currently there is more incentives to work in politics than the private sector. The private sector rewards hard work and often times you need to work long hours, weekends and sometimes deal with a great deal of uncertainty during the initial stages of a business endeavor. However, once you hit it in business, you hit really big. One of my very successful entrepreneur friends told me that an average entrepreneur will need about 5 years of incubation period to establish a successful business. However, all too often in Ghana, when you are a politician, you don’t have to deal with this incubation period of starting a business. People become rich overnight as soon as they enter into politics. And the juicy part is that on top of the comfortable living, you also become untouchable by the law. Politicians who prior to entering the government had no cars or at best some rickety car that can easily give you tetanus are all of a sudden ridding brand new $40,000 cars, living in the plushest parts of town and travelling abroad like nobody’s business. They are waited on like monarchs with personal security, a chain of office assistants (messengers) and domestic servants. These politicians enjoy facilities that people who have been in business for 20 years cannot even afford to provide for themselves. And talk about power, they have more than they even need. Politicians are hardly stopped or harassed by the police, they do no wrong and favors are lined up for them wherever they go. By the time they are out of politics, they have two or three houses and a fleet of cars to their name. So the average youth is not stupid – it is all about the discount rate. There can be potential reward in starting your own business. Once you have crossed the incubation period of business, there are potential goldmines (that is assuming the state is not going to come after you). But at the end of the day why would anybody want to go through the difficulty and hardship of the incubation process when you can easily hit it big in politics.
If they want us to start our own business then they should work to dispel the idea that politics is where the easy money is. First instead of all those expensive cars they buy for politicians with our tax money, they can do with some modest cars to reflect the economic realities in the country. Second, the lip service of zero tolerance for corruption should end. There should be proper system of accountability for public officials and people found in contravention of the law should be dealt with severely. The people’s money should never be easy for the picking of politicians. Also, everybody should be treated equally before the law irrespective of your income or place in life. The security forces should stop hiding under the cloak of ‘we are performing our duties’ and stop the mishandling of citizens even before they are brought before a court of law. In addition, government agencies must have a standard operating procedure (SOP) to which all bureaucrats must strictly follow. With a strictly enforced SOP the issue of favoring politicians over others will cease. Further, each program of study at the secondary schools and tertiary institutions must have a course on entrepreneurship on their curriculum to teach people how they can easily translate their skills into successful private ventures. And most importantly, credit should be easily available for people to start their own business.