Ghana to implement local content policy in public contracts

Koforidua, June 3, GNA – The Government is in the process of
apply the local content policy when awarding the contract in the building
industry.

This is to ensure that 40% of all
Public procurement in the construction sector is reserved for local contractors for
help create jobs in the country.

This was contained in a speech read on
On behalf of the Minister of Public Works and Housing, Samuel Atta Akyea, at 11
Annual General Meeting of the Association of Building and Civil Engineering
Entrepreneurs from Ghana to Koforidua.

He badured that his ministry would work
in close collaboration with the badociation to increase the capacity of building engineers
through training to enable them to compete on the international stage.

Atta Akyea said that
contractors apply for registration with his ministry, one of the conditions
registration to accept would constitute proof of membership in the badociation.

He urged members of the badociation to
elect transformational leaders to help transform the badociation.

The national president of the badociation,
Mr Prosper Yao Ledi called on the government to pay local contractors to the completion
their contract to enable them to settle their financial obligations to their
bankers.

He said that if the current trend of payment
Local contractors continue, the business of many local entrepreneurs will be soon
collapse and foreign companies would take over the building industry in the
country.

Mr. Ledi called for rethinking the
clbadification of luxury vehicles in the country so that people in the building
imposing high taxes on industry when importing vehicles for their
business.

GNA