The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has called for a national decade of business development, urging Ghana to abandon political rhetoric and move decisively toward enterprise and production after nearly 70 years of independence.
Speaking at the Ghana Business Leaders’ Conclave organised by the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) in partnership with GCB Bank PLC, the monarch delivered what amounted to an economic manifesto, demanding that both government and the private sector treat the next 10 years as a compact for growth with the urgency of a national security agenda.
“We have had enough of talks, Ghana must now become a nation of builders,” Otumfuo said.
He challenged the government to formally theme the next decade as a period of business development, backing that commitment with enabling policy frameworks, macroeconomic stability, and a regulatory environment that gives entrepreneurs room to operate. The real heavy lifting, however, he placed squarely on citizens, professionals, and institutions.
Otumfuo argued that there is no truer measure of a nation’s development than the state of its economy, linking the ability to feed families, educate children and deliver healthcare entirely to economic output. That reality, he said, has been consistently betrayed by a post-independence habit of placing partisan loyalty above national interest.
He prescribed six non-negotiable values for business leadership in what he described as a fractured world: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage. These, he stressed, are not foreign concepts but universals deeply embedded in local tradition. He warned that the erosion of trust now reaches from politics into banking, boardrooms, classrooms and homes, and that democracy may change governments at the ballot box but only trust sustains society.
Board Chairman of GCB Bank, Prof. Joshua Alabi, commended Otumfuo’s commitment to youth development and peace building, describing him as a national resource. He said GCB Bank, which has operated for over 70 years with 184 branches, remains committed to supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), public institutions and large enterprises through its digital transformation agenda.
“Institutions grow and nations prosper when knowledge, leadership and enterprise are brought together,” Prof. Alabi said, affirming GCB Bank’s intention to continue backing initiatives that promote enterprise and meaningful national contribution.
