Citi Business Festival: Stakeholders urged to rethink retail sector
The Managing Partner of Ishmael Yamson and Associates, Michael Harry Yamson says there is the pressing need to rethink the country’s retail sector to maximize its benefits.
He said that was because the sector had the power to transform the country’s industrial scene by making it better.
Mr Yamson was speaking at the Citi Business Festival Forum on “Retail and Consumer Markets” on Citi TV in Accra on Tuesday.
“We have seen many roadblocks around growth including higher tariffs, higher taxes, more expensive supply chain costs. But the retail as a sector for me is something that deserves a rethink,” he stated.
Mr Yamson underscored that so much was spent in subsisting in the sector, stating that “As much as we see a lot of glamour in our retail sector, the fact remains that we spend largely to subsist. We have to understand that retail has the power to transform our industrial scene.”
The Managing Partner of Ishmael Yamson and Associates noted that a challenge the sector faced was with the low value-added products which put other similar foreign products above the local ones.
As such, he said it was imperative for such products to be looked at and worked on as a matter of urgency by all stakeholders.
“We have to be sober the minute we begin to talk about the need for us to progress as an economy. We need to be sober because half of the products going into retail has no value added to it than that is where we have to pay great attention.”
“There are very low value-added things that we are doing, and we have to understand that retail has the power to transform our industrial scene,” he stated.
About Citi Business Festival 2023
The annual Citi Business Festival is a month-long initiative marked with on-air and outdoor events in the month of June to equip Ghanaian businesses with strategies to grow and scale up while meeting emerging trade and commerce trends.
This year, it is themed generally around the Made it Ghana Agenda.
There are live radio on-air series at 9:05am every Monday to Thursday on the Citi Breakfast Show on Citi FM. On Fridays however, it airs at 7:10am.
Aside from the on-air series, there will be weekly forums on Citi TV every Tuesday to hold discussions on the theme for the week as well as special TV feature stories aimed at showcasing indigenous Ghanaian businesses.
The Citi Business Festival 2023 is powered by Citi TV and Citi FM in partnership with Absa Bank and is proudly sponsored by MTN MOMO, MTN Business, and Zeepay with support from GIRSAL.
Source: Ghana Business
