Mr Gayheart Mensah, the External Affairs Director of Vodafone Ghana, has said that private sector players had immense potential to accelerate the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the country.

He said they could help to do this if they are backed it with concepts and efforts.

A statement from Vodafone to the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday said Mr Mensah made the suggestion at a side-event during the UN High-Level Political Forum organised at the UN Headquarters in New York on the theme, "Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality.”

It said Mr Mensah called for a relook at how successful organisations were assessed, in order to ensure that the private sector contributes more significantly to delivering on the SDGs.

Mr Mensah was quoted as saying: “Organisations should not be assessed only by how profitable or economically sustainable they are. The social and economic sustainability of their activities should be key components of any assessment, and not just left to conscience, morality and ethics.”

“This will make organisations strive for partnerships and the appropriate governance framework that will support the attainment of the 2030 Agenda,” he added.

Vodafone, he said, was persuaded on the fact that something was more valuable than just being a profitable organisation, which is the impact an organisation had on people and communities, the statement said.

He said Vodafone exhibited that in some of its initiatives such as its partnership with the Government of Ghana, particularly the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).

The statement explained that Vodafone Ghana, two years ago, entered into a partnership with the GSS to use mobile-derived customer insights to make better predictions for sustainable development and life-saving decisions.

Using aggregated and anonymised Call Detail Records, the GSS would analyse and generate statistics to support decision-making in public health delivery, humanitarian, agriculture and development planning, the statement said.

It reiterated that the project, tagged, "Data for Good", receives support from Vodafone UK, Hewlett Foundation, and technical support from Flow-minder, a not-for-profit organisation.

According to the statement, Mr Mensah said: “When we get to the junction where the operations of the majority of organisations contribute to empowerment and inclusiveness and also promote gender equality, that will be a major leap towards delivering on Agenda 2030.”

He pledged Vodafone’s commitment to partner government to effectively track trends in health, agriculture and population movements, among others, adding that, it demonstrated what Public Private Partnership could do to contribute to the attainment of the SDGs.

The statement said Government's delegation to the UN Forum was led by the Minister of Planning, Professor George Gyan-Baffour.

Others are Mr Alhassan Andani, the Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic Bank, Nana Effah-Apenteng, the Paramount Chief of Bompata and Mr George Osei-Akoto Bimpeh, the Country Director of SEND Ghana.