Accra, May 13, GNA - Vice-President John Dramani Mahama has asked local entrepreneurs not to depend on political patronage in growing their enterprises.

Rather, they should develop their businesses through hard work, discipline and the deployment of needed professional skills. He said while government was determined to promote local entrepreneurship without discrimination on party political grounds, wrong doing would not be tolerated as enterprise or where people set up dummy companies just to plunder state resources. Vice President Mahama said this in a speech read on his behalf at the 15th anniversary celebration of Strategic Communications Africa Limited on Wednesday.

He said government was encouraging Ghanaians to be active in pursuing opportunities in the burgeoning oil and gas industry and take significant share of the monies that would be invested in the exploration and development stages of the project. In doing this, Vice-President Mahama said, it was important that Ghanaian entrepreneurs do not only become passive fronts or agents for foreign firms in the industry.

"We must work to create local enterprises even if it is not easy in the beginning. That way, the benefits of our natural resources will accrue to us, not to the foreigners who are descending on Takoradi and the Western Region in their numbers. In this direction, government had urged foreign partners involved in developing the Jubillee Field, to comply with the laws that require that preference be given to using local goods and services and that Ghanaians be employed at all levels of the operations once they had the requisite expertise.

"The challenge is for us to show our capabilities and exhibit the highest levels of professionalism whether as welders, rig workers, engineering, financial or administrative staff so that we can effectively lay claim to the job positions that are being created," he said.

Vice-President Mahama lauded the entrepreneurial ability of Ms. Esther Cobbah, Chief Executive Officer of Stratcomm, and paid glowing tribute to her and team for their indomitable spirit and conquering drive even in the face of difficulties, especially in 2008. He stressed the importance of effective communication at all levels in promoting government programmes, saying without good communication skills well-intended projects could fail.

Ms. Esther Cobbah urged communication practitioners to be able to achieve national development and international understanding by enhancing the effectiveness of the messages they churned out. The day was marked by songs of praise to God and a cutting of a birthday cake to celebrate the occasion. 13 May 09