A former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Sylvester A. Mensah has advised public office holders to regularly equip themselves with the requisite knowledge and skills in their field of work.
According to him, governance is knowledge-based, and the ability to conceptualize it is an imperative tool for the day-to-day running of the affairs of the country.
He made these comments as a special guest and speaker at a dinner organized by the 2020/2021 graduating MA Ports & Shipping Administration regular students of the Regional Maritime University, held at the Best Western Hotel in Nungua, on Sunday, May 23, 2021.
“Reinventing the wheel in public office would be grossly incompetent and a wasteful burden on the Ghanaian taxpayer. Benchmarking of institutions and countries that have successfully gone through Ghana’s experiences and creatively adapting their strategies to suit our peculiar circumstances to leapfrog development is the key to efficiency and success,” he stressed.
The former MP and founding member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), also used the opportunity to share a few political experiences, both in public office and in party grassroots mobilization, with the graduands.
Mr. Mensah encouraged the graduating students not to shy away from active politics and any other endeavour, encouraging them to always develop a fallback position in the likely or unlikely events of frustration in their instant or preferred livelihood engagements.
The students made probing inquiries into NDC- NPP politics and public service in general.
Among the graduating Masters’ students were lawyers, senior navy officers, marine engineers, public and corporate officers, port administrators, entrepreneurs, and a few foreign students from Nigeria and Cameroon.
He also inaugurated the year group’s alumni executives and presented some certificates to deserving students.
Mr. Sylvester Mensah was also honoured with a certificate of appreciation, presented by Ms. Sedina Matanawui, the President of the graduating year group.
