Government to review taxes and duties on some food
imports
Accra, July 26, GNA – Vice President John Dramani Mahama on
Saturday served notice that government will in the near
future review taxes and duties that were taken off some food
imports in order to allow local farmers to compete.
Speaking at the 20th National Marketing Performance Awards
of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG), Mr
Mahama said government’s aim was to reduce drastically the
food import bill, especially in areas that the country had
the comparative advantage to produce.
He said the Small and Medium Enterprises sector was in
danger of losing out on the gains that it had made over the
years because of the current adverse economic environment
caused by lack of prudence in the management of the economy
in the past three years.
He reiterated government’s commitment to maintain fiscal
discipline to ensure a stable and predictable environment
for the local private sector, adding that the steps taken
since January had begun to yield results.
Touching on the awards, Vice-President Mahama charged award
winning companies to examine their operations carefully and
determine the metrics that was the most appropriate for
their specific organizations.
He said the chosen metrics must enable executives to gather
and analyse basic market data, measure the core factors that
drive their business models, analyse the profitability of
individual customer accounts and optimize resource
allocation among increasingly competing and fragmented
requirements.
The Vice President lauded the efforts of the institute in
instilling best marketing practices and pledged government’s
support to enable the CIMG complete the process of
localizing the marketing profession so that members played a
much more relevant role in achieving the country’ vision.
Besides, government would also assist the CIMG incorporate
into the curriculum new marketing standards and course
content that would reflect the aspiration of companies in
the country.
Mrs Josephine Okutu, National President CIMG, said the
turbulent world economies required that countries adopt
appropriate policies that would protect their economies
against the shocks being experienced the world over.
She said CIMG had constantly appraised the selection
procedure and other areas of the awards scheme to respond to
changing situations within corporate Ghana.
In response, there have been visible improvements,
culminating in a new addition of marketing Practitioner
Award in order to give recognition to the efforts of
marketing practitioners.
Mr Kwame Achampong-Kyei, Chairman GLICO Group of Companies
was adjudged the marketing man of the year 2008 while Mrs
Norkor Dua, Managing Director Lowe Lintas took the coveted
price of the Marketing Woman of the Year 2008.
The award for the marketing student of the year went to Mr
Cedric McAddy, Head, External Marketing of the Ghana
Commercial Bank.
Mr George Andah, Chief Marketing Officer MTN took the
Marketing Practitioner of the year 2008.
Three companies were also inducted to the CIMG Hall of Fame,
which is reserved for organizations that have won the awards
for three times. The 2008 inductees were Toyota Ghana
Limited, Melcom Limited and State Insurance Company.
There were no awards for the ICT and Retail companies of the
Year because of the inability of the nominated companies to
meet the required criteria.
GNA
