Richard Asante-Amoah, the Lead Council Member of the Chartered Institute of Supply Chain Management-Ghana (CISCM), has expressed worry about the need for policymakers to embrace integrated supply chains and introduce a Legislative Instrument (LI) to clean up the sector.

According to him, having a LI that oversees the sector’s operation would be of more advantageous than having just one aspect of supply chain management regulated.

Mr. Asante-Amoah pointed out that the regulation of one aspect of supply chain management without taking into account the overall industry leaves room for waste.

He made this comment during a presentation on behalf of Founder and Executive Chairman- McDan Group of Companies, Daniel McKorley, on the theme ‘Challenges and Key Success Factors in Ghana’s Logistic Sector’ at the 2023 supply chain research summit organised by the Centre for Applied Research and Innovation in Supply Chain-Africa (CARISCA).

While urging policymakers to ensure the introduction of the legislative instrument, he also urged stakeholders to add their voices and make sure the industry is sanitised to avoid certain challenges.

“Procurement is not a supply chain; procurement is a micro-aspect within the supply chain. So, if you have a law to sanitise it and you do not have a law to sanitise planning, logistics, clearing and forwarding, which are ancillary services, by the time you realise one aspect is polished other aspects would have been neglected.”
Richard Asante-Amoah

Youth Regarded As The Future Of The Supply Chain Sector

Nathaniel Boso, the director of CARISCA, stated that the conference’s emphasis this year is on making sure that young people interested in the supply chain industry are given the required skills to enable them to meet global demand.

Dr. Boso continued by saying that the supply chain in Africa had undergone a significant change and that practitioners needed to discuss and adopt the way ahead to meet the demand at hand.

He urged African leaders to confront the significant obstacles at several borders that are likely to obstruct the success of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) immediately.

The Executive Director for CARISCA, Dale S. Rogers, expressed the believe that Africa could be the world’s manufacturing plant in the near-future with its high youthful population if structures can be put in place. He added that there are a lot of multinational firms looking for new markets, but more importantly new sources of supply – and Africa could meet that demand.

CARISCA’s third annual Supply Chain Research Summit is a premier event to help achieve the vision of transforming supply networks across Africa. The conference gathered nearly 90 supply chain students, scholars, practitioners and policymakers to partake and contribute.

With funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and Arizona State University (ASU) collaborated to create the Centre for Applied Research and Innovation in Supply Chain-Africa (CARISCA).