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The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Assin Central Constituency, Mr Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, has called on the government to support home-grown businesses to enable them to grow and expand their operations instead of focusing on bringing in new investors.

He explained that until the Ghanaian businessman or businesswoman with vision was assisted and supported to grow and expand his or her operations, the economy would continue to stagnate.

Mr Agyapong said this at the 10th edition of the Tema Excellence Awards held last Saturday, in Tema in the Greater Accra Region.

The Tema Excellence Awards is aimed at celebrating personalities who reside in Tema and have excelled in their various fields of endeavour and contributed to the development of the metropolis.

This year 12 individuals were presented with shields and citations for their contributions to society.

Economy contribution

The Assin Central lawmaker and businessman, who was the Special Guest of Honour, noted that successive governments had over the years not supported indigenous businesses to make them take commanding heights of the economy.

“There are good Ghanaians who can do good business and they need support. We are not asking for handouts; all we are asking for is assistance to contribute to the economic development of our nation.”

“I have always asked myself what we can do as citizens of this country to develop our nation. We are not harnessing our potential. I wouldn’t blame anybody but I think successive governments have not done enough to promote Ghanaian entrepreneurs. We need to take our destiny into our own hands but we can only do that when we have banks assisting businessmen and businesswomen with vision,” he said.

He bemoaned the high-interest rates charged by the banks and called on the government to do something about it.

“If an Indian is coming to do business with an interest rate of between three and five percent, and a Ghanaian goes for a loan of 30 percent, how do you compete with an Indian globally?

"How do you compete with a Lebanese globally? Even Nigeria, which is next door to Ghana, has an interest rate regime of between nine and 10 percent,” he stated.