The founder and chairman of Ishmael Yamson and Associates, Dr Ishmael Yamson, has advised businesses to adopt more cutting-edge strategies in order to stay afloat, especially given the difficult economic conditions in the country.

Speaking at the third Ishmael Yamson Business Roundtable in Accra, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Unilever Ghana also urged businesses to pursue aggressive operational policies to stay credible with stakeholders and stay close to customers to ensure products and services meet their needs.

He emphasised the need to be aware of competition so as to be able to respond to threats.

“How do I remain relevant in this very difficult time? Of course you must be aware of competition and respond to the threats of competition. Today in Ghana, the competition may not be only domestic. Everybody here has probably more external competitors than internal competitors and if you come to think about it, somebody is sitting somewhere in Malaysia or Singapore or Philippines with an inflation of six per cent, interest rate of two per cent in some places, they are even begging people to come and borrow money, it’s for free because the interest rate is zero. I hear some time ago in Japan it was negative. So, they pay you to go and collect the money. And you are in Ghana, you are paying 30 per cent interest rate, so even if you charge them 50 per cent duty, they can still put goods on their boats, bring it here and be more competitive than you are. That is why the behaviour of the managers of our economy is so critical because if your interest rate is galloping, all you are saying is that your local manufacturers and businesses have no chance to survive, it’s as simple as that,” he stated.