I have watched the recent visit of Prince Charles to Ghana with some interest. For the UK, the visit sits within its work to prepare for Brexit, by being ready for the rebalancing of Britain’s trade away from Europe that is likely to be needed after leaving the European Union. […]
Targeting Entrepreneur Training (in Business & Financial Times, 26 Sep 2018)
Unemployment, particularly for young people, is widely recognised to be the biggest economic challenge facing Ghana. We all know people who have been searching for work for months, years or even decades. Government are trying to tackle this in many ways including entrepreneur training and seed funding programmes. I have […]
The Paradox of Ghana’s graduate job market (in Business & Financial Times, 28 Sep 2018)
My first story is of graduate level job advertisements which attract thousands of applicants, tight packed in virtually endless queues to drop off their applications. An economist might suggest this shows that there is a much greater supply of applicants than of jobs. My second story is of a graduate […]
Continuing Kofi Annan’s work (in Business & Financial Times, 14 Sep 2018)
This week we have been celebrating the life of the great Ghanaian Kofi Annan. In a speech to African leaders in 2003, he said: “democracy means more than holding elections. It requires respect for the rule of law by all… It requires viable institutions to promote respect for all human […]
Making Better Informed Decisions (in Business & Financial Times, 7 Sep 2018)
The heated public debate over the last few weeks about the planned national Cathedral points to a need for us to find better ways to make decisions about nationally significant projects like this one. How do we make these better informed decisions? Let me first address the suggestion of some […]
Ubuntu business (in Business & Financial Times, 31 Aug 2018)
“Social enterprise” is a popular phrase, particularly in Europe, the USA and India. A decade ago it was little used, but a Google search now turns up a huge 350 million hits. Amongst these are many different definitions, but the core idea is that organisations use business methods to address […]
Restoring Wider Educational Opportunity (in Business & Financial Times, 24 Aug 2018)
“The necessity for institutional change is itself an expression of the need to preserve ideals” (The Mind of Africa, W E Abraham) This week I complete a three-part mini-series on Ghanaian philosopher William Abraham, focussing on the background to an event last June to unveil a new picture of him. […]
Vision Found and Lost (in Business & Financial Times, 10 Aug 2018)
“..the immense motivating power of a shared and inspiring vision for the future” (preface to the 2015 edition of The Mind of Africa, W E Abraham) Last week’s column told of William Abraham’s early years, up till 1959 when he became the first African fellow of All Souls College Oxford. […]
Aim for World Class Achievement (in Business & Financial Times, 3 Aug 2018)
“History is always the light that some culture throws on events” (The Mind of Africa, W E Abraham) Following on from my last column about the importance of re-discovering and valuing Ghanaian heroes, I am devoting my next few columns to one of my own heroes, my father William Abraham. […]
No more heroes anymore? (in Business & Financial Times, 27 Jul 2018)
Some modern peddlers of dreams say one is still young – or at worst, middle aged – at 60. That may be challengeable, but for a country, 60 (now 61 in Ghana’s case) is definitely young. Yet the confidence and idealism of youth, which were so evident in the first […]