The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) says the industry has a very critical role to play in the attainment of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) set by the United Nations.
According to AGI, the time has come for young entrepreneurs in Ghana to contribute their quota in supporting the government, the private sector and civil society organisations efforts in achieving the 2030 set goals.
In an interview with Citi News on the sidelines of the official launch of the Ghana Young Entrepreneurs Roundtable (GYER) on Sustainable Development Goals championed by the Eastern and Volta Regional branch of AGI at Akosombo, the Chairman of the Eastern and Volta branch of AGI, Mr Dela Gadzanku indicated that the various activities which will be rolled out will positively help push the country inline to achieve the SDG targets.
“As industry players, we have a very critical role to play in the attainment of the 2030 SDG goals, when you talk about innovation, partnership, Corporate social responsibility and supporting communities where we operate, all fit into our agenda and as business people we shouldn’t always be thinking about making profit. We know what is happening in Obuase and in the Eastern Region we are aware about the perceived issues about mining companies not being responsible and sensitive to the needs of communities, when you go to Tarkwa, Obuase they say the roads are bad”.
“These are all results of lack of commitment from the company’s operating in those areas, mostly you will only find the multinational companies engaging in corporate social responsibility and this is supposed to encourage the local enterprises to also engage in sustainable corporate social responsibilities and this is a reason why we have launched this initiative to help check all the flaws”.
The Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority, Mr Emmanuel Asigiri, the chairman at the launch in a Citi News interview lauded the efforts of AGI and called on the youth in the country to come on board.
“The development goals are things that affect our daily lives and affect us as people. We need to make conscious efforts to achieve them. Climate issues have become a world issue now and not only climate but every other thing identified on the SDG needs to be worked at. I am particularly happy that private sector especially AGI has taken a bold step in bringing this initiative and driving it, it is good collaboration and we are ready to support in any way we can so I urge everyone to come on board to help this good initiative”.
The Ghana Young Entrepreneurs Roundtable on the Sustainable Development Goals has an initial membership of 50 young entrepreneurs with a representative from each of the 16 regions.
Every entrepreneur will be tasked with focusing on an SD G based on the field of expertise, come out with a blueprint on how to achieve the assigned target with the help of other relevant institutions.
