Mr Oteng-Gyasi made the call in an interview with the Daily Graphic on efforts the company put in to emerge the best manufacturing company in Electricals and Electronics sub-sector of the economy.
Tropical Cable and Conductor Ltd (TCCL) picked up the awards at the recent National Industrial Awards, the first such awards organised by the largest local umbrella body of manufacturing companies, the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI)
“We sell in the sub-region though, but we need to make more inroads and survive the competition coming from outside. We can have a hub of excellence for cable manufacturing in Ghana to serve West Africa. This is only practicable if the policy framework is in place,” Mr Oteng-Gyasi told the Daily Graphic.
The industrialist, who holds an unflinching belief in the Ghanaian and his ability to achieve higher laurels, said governments should stop paying lip service to the construction industry, saying “we need to pay more than lip service to the issue of localising construction materials. From cement to door locks, we should make a conscious effort of localising it.”
He explained that the authorities should find out the challenges for manufacturing each product and take a conscious decision to manufacture those locally in the country, adding that “the country shouldn’t leave it to change and as a business decision by entrepreneurs but as conscious evidence based policy on what can be localised and what is not possible.
TCCL came up tops in that sector after a team of experts detailed by the AGI award’s committee conducted assessments of industrial manufacturers in the sector in various areas including their financial records, good corporate governance structures and production levels.
Commenting on the awards, Mr Oteng-Gyasi said the primary focus of TCCL was to give value for money, saying “we won’t sacrifice quality for anything because just as electricity is useful and a fundamental part of modern living, it can be dangerous. We believe equality and use of appropriate standards is paramount.”
He said ensuring quality was non-negotiable, saying although quality came with slightly higher prices, users should be ready to pay “just a little more for quality and safety.”
Tropical Cable and Conductor Ltd started operations in 1998, having been incorporated the previous year, to manufacture overhead conductors and a wide range of insulated cables for both electrical and telecommunication use, locally and for export.
The company is ISO 9001-2000 standard Certified and currently has capacity to produce about 6,000 tonnes of cables and conductors a year. It supplies cables to Volta River Authority (VRA), the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), the Energy Ministry, mining companies, real estate developers, electrical contractors and the general public.
TCCL has developed a robust documentation framework to cover all its processes from purchasing of raw materials, processing stages including production and stores, quality control, and human resource to marketing under the ISO standard.
Recently, Tropical Cable and Conductor Ltd increased its production capacity to 6,000 tonnes per annum of various products but only about 60 per cent of this installed capacity is so far being utilised because of unbridled importation of cables which, although, cannot stand the quality of TCCL though.
For Mr Oteng-Gyasi and his team, “Our general attitude as Ghanaians also needs to change for us to look at products made-in-Ghana. We need to have more faith in ourselves and ability to do things and this will greatly enhance the local manufacturing sector.”
TCCL is part of the local cable manufacturing team of three that is implementing a credit line of GH¢80 million which the local companies arranged to meet government supplies. The company believes that the initiative is only a small step that should be enhanced and replicated across sectors by whichever president comes into power next year.
The company exports its products to several countries in the sub-region such as Nigeria, Liberia, Togo, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone.
A member of the Ghana Club 100, TCCL has won several awards including the CIMG Manufacturing Company of the Year Award, the National Quality Awards, and the Ghana Standards Board Award for Quality.