President John Mahama says the continuous growth of indigenous firms like Zoomlion Ghana Limited have become the envy of many people in the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
According to the President, many of his party supporters and sympathizers harbor the feeling that Zoomlion and some other thriving businesses in the country are owned by members of the opposition parties and want those businesses to fall.
He said those people believed that making those businesses to survive and keep expanding their frontiers under the governing NDC will be detrimental to their course, hence, the need to wipe them off from the system.
Addressing thousands of workers of Zoomlion Ghana Limited and other subsidiaries of the Jospong Group of Companies at the Trade Fair Center in Accra on Friday, December 2, 2016, the President Mahama said some NDC members were so bitter that they approached the late President John Evans Atta-Mills and himself to collapse those businesses.
“The history of our country is replete with businesses going down because government has changed. We will like to label our indigenous businessmen with a political paint brush. So, the person is running his business and we say oh he is an NPP businessman or an NDC business man or he is a CPP or GCPP businessman. And so when government changes, it is like you must run down all these businesses that are not on your side,” he said.
“Dr. Siaw Agyepong had started his business when we came into government. He established it under the illustrious administration of President John Agyekum Kufour. And so, by the time we came into office, his company had spread quite across the country,” he recounted.
He said upon winning power in 2008, many said Zoomlion has become a monopoly in the waste management sector and something must be done by government to allow other businesses to come in.
“But Prof. is very principled and determined person with my support said he (Dr. Agyepong) is a Ghanaian businessman and he is employing Ghanaians. It is the responsibility of the government to provide employment to our people and so whether he is red, green, or black as far as he is providing jobs in the economy, his business must thrive and continue,” Mr Mahama said.
He said his belief in Ghanaian businesses has seen protected a number of such firms develop over the last couple of years.
“As President, I believe strongly in the Ghanaian indigenous business persons. Our companies if they get the right support, they can prove themselves. That is what my government has been determined to do,” he noted.
“For me when it comes to Ghanaian businesses, I am colour blind…I am politically blind. It doesn’t matter who you are. As far as you are a Ghanaian and contributing to the growth of the economy, you have a right to do your business and earn a profit,” he added.
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