The Imani Summer University Seminar (IMSU) series organized by a non-governmental organization, Imani Centre for Policy and Education was in collaboration with Ashesi University on the theme "Inspiring African Transformation".
The seminar, which was targeted at students with diverse intellectual background and ideas, was aimed at discussing and sharing knowledge related to the theme and to advocate for practical solutions to address these problems.
Pertinent areas being discussed included why Africa should forget Foreign Aid, the concept of Free and Fair trade, property rights and the African concept of Private Ownership, Cedi-redenomination and its economic implications for the country, Entrepreneurship and the spirit of creative destruction.
Other related areas also included Multinational Corporation (MNCs) and Poverty reduction, Globalization and Entrepreneurship Culture and how to manage a social enterprise lead by lectures with distinctive fields.
Among other challenges hampering the development of the African continent, a lecture at Ashesi University who is passionate about entrepreneurship held a discussing relating to the topic during which he said entrepreneurs are the forces of their business since they decide when and how to manage an enterprise.
Also an economic analyst, he said Africans do not recognize powerful ideas regarding this new conceptual ideas prevailing in recent times.
During discussing with students at the seminar, he revealed that one key element that hinders people from engaging in an effective entrepreneurship was based on culture and the way to resolve was to allow competition to exist.
"It is about time we as Africans use entrepreneurship to provide practical solutions to problems that government could not solve and to allow competition as an ingredient to innovations to exist in the country," he noted.
Dr. Yaw Adarwah Antwi, a consultant on property rights and lands policy who spoke extensively on his topic distinguished the distinctive feature between private property rights and common property rights.
"The difference between private property rights and common property rights is that private property rights is being owned by the rights holders to the exclusions of everyone else whereas common property rights is a rights enjoyed by a group of people," he explained.
He further disclosed that property rights systems comprises of the formal, informal, written and written rules, customs and laws that govern the way economic resources are being utilized in the society.
"Private property rights aligns against cost of resource employment decisions more forcefully that public," he said.
He noted that one reason why officialdom prefer communal ownership of property in Africa is to expand their agencies to promote their interest by making rights administration complex.
In this regard, he urged Africans, bureaucrats, politicians and traditional authorities among others not to misconceive the concept and view of property rights in the country. Imani Executive Director, Franklin Cudjoe who dwelt on multinational Corporations (MNCs) and poverty reductions demanded a radical review of MNCs firms that operate in multiple countries at the same time spreading their business across several geographical frontiers.
"An MNCs such as HP, the computer maker for instance, could maintain its marketing department in the United States of America whiles its .buy its components from Malaysia and assemble the products in China and run it after-sale service from Europe," he suggested
He argued that globalization and new demands of consumers in both developed and developing world should make MNCs crucial to enhance the institutional capacity of developing countries.
"MNCs should be made crucial to enhance the institutional capacity of developing countries and to allow economic actors to respond to the new level of institutional effectiveness;" he said.
"Well I would say that MNCs participation is important because firstly, the reduction of poverty depends on the growth of business," he noted.
Explaining, he said poverty reduction requires systematic change since MNCs are the worlds most efficient and sustainable engines of change to make business flourish to enhance economic development in the economy.
In this regard, Mr Franklin stressed the need for business entry and exist rules to be flexible to enable ordinary people create employment for themselves and others. "Government has no business creating employment avenues such as National Youth Employment programmes which are gimmicks for political advantages," he said.
In attendance were Dr. Robert Darko Osei, a research fellow at the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana, legon, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the host of Joy fm's super morning show, Peter Jungen an, entrepreneur and also the president of the European Enterprise Institute, June Arunga, a recent law graduate from the University of Buckingham in England and the founder of Open Quest Media LLC, a film production company in the new York city.
Reflections on 2007 Seminar by Guest Lecturer Ms. June Arunga
I just got back from Ghana where Franklin had invited me to be part of the faculty at the student seminar he organized. I did not know what to expect when I was heading out there, but was so pleasantly surprised by what he managed to accomplish on $10,000!
The seminar was so impressive, that the entire faculty was in agreement that it should at a minimum be an annual event, and even has the potential of ultimately growing into a university.
Franklin used the IHS model and executed it beautifully. He got the smartest students he could from 9 West African countries, some even flew from as far as England to attend. It was a mix of Post graduate, graduate and undergraduate students who were all passionate, curious and with above average intellectual fire power.
The faculty was made up of globally respected, seasoned industry specialists, whose presentations could easily be sold to industry players in their respective fields, and so nothing was in the abstract. I learned so much about African land tenure, the history of the aid industry, its philosophical underpinning and evolution and many other fascinating topics Franklin had chosen.
Franklin truly has the foresight to know what his comparative advantage is as the visionary, and the humility to surround himself with the smartest minds he can find, so that from first contact with his institute, its credibility is well established. His M.O. is certainly one I hope myself in my media work and other African think tanks in theirs will follow.
I just wanted to share this, since you have been so instrumental in helping IMANI come as far as it has. This is just to let you know, it is not in vain. Franklin and IMANI will be around for a long time, and with more support, I foresee IMANI having the same kind of success IHS has had, with alumni in government, policy making, in the media, and academia.
Thanks for all the great connections you and others in the movement continue to orchestrate. For the 50 students who attended that seminar, I could tell it was the beginning of a new chapter in their lives.
Best,
June
"I enjoyed every bit of the package. For me, it was a week of inspiration, further education and information. I can still get in touch with all the brilliant friends I made to continue tapping into their rich, resourced minds." -- Jacki Endy,2007 Seminar attendee
"To me, it was one of the greatest efforts taken by Franklin and the IMANI team.The Seminar was well organized and lived the freedom principles while we learned. Together we can climb high and make ourselves proud as well as IMANI, and all the African men and women who are crusading for a better Africa today and tomorrow."-- Michael Yamoah, 2007 Seminar attendee
"The seminar was so interesting that I qualify it as my first 'paradise on earth'. The main idea in this seminar is that Africa needs economic freedom and the respect of individual property rights to be developed. We were introduced to the idea of the creative destruction and how ideas of some initiators of liberalism such as Adams Smith, Frederic von Hayek, and Frederic Bastiat can be applied in African context. I then leave Accra with a lot of books that will help me to swim in the freedom ideology."--Sinte Mahamadou, 2007 Seminar Attendee
