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Kate Quartey-Papafio, the Chief Executive Officer of Reroy Electrical Cables has encouraged women to be industrious and take up leadership position to broaden and advance the governance system in the country.

She urged young women Entrepreneurs not to be stagnant, but become purposeful, focus and pursue their business plans with determination and as well sustained their gains and legacy for future outcomes.

Kate Quartey-Papafio stated that gender balance was essential for economies and commodities to thrive, stressing that collective action and responsibility sharing was critical for a gender-balanced world and critical to development.

She encouraged women to get involved in the country’s governance system to be productive, calling for greater representation in the governance process to exhibit their talent and potential in national development.

“Women had a special gift and when it’s well harnessed and nurtured would spur economic development, she added.

The 2016 Outstanding Industrialist award winner said the private sector compliment government interventions in the socio-economic development, adding that, an effective enabling environment was critical for the sector to expand and employ more people.

Giving highlights about her beginning as an astute Entrepreneur, Quartey-Papafio said she started trading at age nine, selling kerosene, but her willingness to succeed at all times made her to develop a niche around the power sector.

“The idea to venture into the power sector came to mind when we needed to install electrical cables for our building, and had to import electrical cables for the project. Upon sober reflection, we taught it prudent to manufacture electrical cables for the Ghanaian market and later export the products to some African countries- Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Togo”, she added.

She said the power sector was a key strategic area when tapped effectively and efficiently would advance the country’s development, because no business entity can function and survive without power.

The 2017 Energy Personality of the Year said the country’s market share was small and had to expand operations to other countries for diversification, adding that they needed to export more to generate foreign income for the nation.

She urged Ghanaians to patronize local goods to boost domestic revenue and demystify the notion that ‘Made in Ghana’ products are inferior.

She attributed the success of the company to hard work, determination, focus and attention to details.

Touching on her Corporate Social Responsibility, the CEO said she established an NGO dubbed “Boamah Foundation”, that offer assistance to the aged in society.

Reroy Cable Limited, manufacturers of electrical cables, on Monday presented a cheque for GHc100,000.00 to the COVID-19 Trust Fund to support people who would be affected by the impact of the disease.

Mr Anthony Mensah, the Public Relations Officer, Reroy Cable Limited who presented the cheque on behalf of the company, said the gesture was part of the organization’s corporate social responsibility to respond to emergencies.

He commended the government for instituting measures to contain the spread of the disease, adding that the company had presented medical equipment to other health institutions to help curb the spread of the disease.

He called for a concerted effort to win the COVID-19 fight, urging other organizations to support the Fund.

The company also presented medical items to the National Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre, Korle-Bu Hospital to protect the staff of the centre.

The items worth GHc20,000, include 20 gallons of hand sanitizers, 10 gallons of liquid soaps, 40 Veronica buckets, 30 pieces of Personal Protective Equipment, 100 packs of tissues and five boxes of gloves.

Mrs Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, the Chief of Staff, who received the cheque thanked the company for the gesture and promise to use the fund for its intended purposes.

She urged Ghanaians to adhere to the precautionary measures including social distancing and hygiene protocols to curb the spread of the virus.

Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, the Director in charge of National Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre, Korle-Bu Hospital commended Reroy Cable for the donation.

Parliament on April 2, passed the COVID-19 National Trust Fund Bill, 2020, under a certificate of urgency.

The Bill will support the needy and the vulnerable who have been afflicted or impacted by the pandemic and for related matters.

The Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, has stated that the country will make up for the shortfalls in tax reliefs by ensuring efficiency in revenue collection, especially by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

The Chief Executive Officer of Reroy Cables, Kate Quartey-Papafio, has said in as much as industry has a role to play in creating more jobs and producing more goods to grow the economy, government must also implement the needed policies that will secure their investments.

“We can produce but look at us; we have the silos; our silos are still sitting there. What plans do we have in terms of storage and making sure that when we produce we can store and then export?” she asked.

“Even with the one-district one-factory, when we are somewhere in Bogoso, and we finish our production, how can we get it down to Accra? What about our railway system, how can we get our products outside the country by exporting them?” she questioned.

“Are we looking at how that after all the hard work we have put in, we can get our products straight to the port without any hindrance?” she asked, saying these are the areas government needs to look at.

Mrs. Quartey-Papafio was speaking at the maiden edition of the National Policy Submit (NPS) ongoing in Accra.

More often than not, she argued, a lot is said about policies whilst little attention is paid to their effective implementation, which is key to protecting the investements of private sector players.

“How can we sustain it and make sure that our investments are secure?”

Mrs. Quartey-Papafio also had an issue with the kind of graduates that are churned out from the various technical schools, saying technical school graduates must focus on the practical aspect of their respective programmes.

“Our economy is such that the people that we have need to be trained in critical areas. So, what policy is government implementing for technical schools so that they will not focus on theories but practical?”

Graduates of technical schools, she insisted, must have technical expertise and should be able to work and produce results and not only be good at rehearsing theories and unable to handle industrial machines.

The government admits technical educational institutions need retooling to enable them train the right calibre of personnel for industry.

Prsident Akufu-Addo, over the weekend, in the Volta Region, reiterated the commitment of his government to prioritise technical education, as it holds the key to the country’s industrial development.

He said all the countries in the world that used to be like Ghana, but are now places of prosperity and development, became so because they paid a great deal of attention and committed a lot of resources to the development of their educational system, especially the development of their technical and scientific education.
– See more at: https://thebftonline.com/business/economy/24488/secure-our-investments-we-will-produce-kate-papafio-to-govt-.html#sthash.NaxHkNEf.dpuf

The Chief Executive Officer of Reroy Cables, Kate Quartey-Papafio, has said in as much as industry has a role to play in creating more jobs and producing more goods to grow the economy, government must also implement the needed policies that will secure their investments.

“We can produce but look at us; we have the silos; our silos are still sitting there. What plans do we have in terms of storage and making sure that when we produce we can store and then export?” she asked.

“Even with the one-district one-factory, when we are somewhere in Bogoso, and we finish our production, how can we get it down to Accra? What about our railway system, how can we get our products outside the country by exporting them?” she questioned.

“Are we looking at how that after all the hard work we have put in, we can get our products straight to the port without any hindrance?” she asked, saying these are the areas government needs to look at.

Mrs. Quartey-Papafio was speaking at the maiden edition of the National Policy Submit (NPS) ongoing in Accra.

More often than not, she argued, a lot is said about policies whilst little attention is paid to their effective implementation, which is key to protecting the investements of private sector players.

“How can we sustain it and make sure that our investments are secure?”

Mrs. Quartey-Papafio also had an issue with the kind of graduates that are churned out from the various technical schools, saying technical school graduates must focus on the practical aspect of their respective programmes.

“Our economy is such that the people that we have need to be trained in critical areas. So, what policy is government implementing for technical schools so that they will not focus on theories but practical?”

Graduates of technical schools, she insisted, must have technical expertise and should be able to work and produce results and not only be good at rehearsing theories and unable to handle industrial machines.

The government admits technical educational institutions need retooling to enable them train the right calibre of personnel for industry.

Prsident Akufu-Addo, over the weekend, in the Volta Region, reiterated the commitment of his government to prioritise technical education, as it holds the key to the country’s industrial development.

He said all the countries in the world that used to be like Ghana, but are now places of prosperity and development, became so because they paid a great deal of attention and committed a lot of resources to the development of their educational system, especially the development of their technical and scientific education.
– See more at: https://thebftonline.com/business/economy/24488/secure-our-investments-we-will-produce-kate-papafio-to-govt-.html#sthash.NaxHkNEf.dpuf

It appears this year 2014 has a lot in stock for Ghana?s cable manufacturing giant, Reroy Cables, as the company says it is extending its operations in Africa.

Reroy, which already exports to Togo, Nigeria, Benin and Burkina Faso, says it plans to further entrench its footprints in other African countries as well.

?Reroy is not only looking at Ghana but we want to expand to other sub-regions where we can expand our services to other neighbouring countries,? Chief Executive Officer, Kate Quartey-Papafio, told The General Telegraph newspaper in an exclusive interview.

She said electricity plays a very significant role in ensuring the productivity of a country so Reroy would not relent in its effort at providing quality cables to ensure its effective transmission.

?We have been in the manufacturing system for a long time now providing high quality cables.?Ghana, of course, comes first, but we are looking at providing high quality cables to cater for the entire sub-region because we need power to move; we need electricity to ?move our continent forward.?

She also emphasised the importance of job training, which she said her company would also be focusing on.

?As you already know, Reroy is actually in the manufacturing of cables locally from rods to the actual conductors and the cable itself so this year we are also looking forward to expanding our scope by giving more job training to people around us and in the sub-region as well.?

It would be recalled that during the State of the Nation Address, President Mahama commended certain key personalities including Reroy?s Kate Quartey-Papafio, who, he said, were contributing significantly to the economic development of the nation.

?Ghana belongs to its business leaders, entrepreneurs and enterprising young people who are creating jobs and working to strengthen our economy, innovative people like those seated in this house today: ?Kate Papafio of Reroy Cables, Frank Adu of Cal Bank, Michael Hinaku of Beige Capital, Alhaji Mohammed Agbeve of Agbeve Herbal, Tony Senayah of Horseman Shoes, Magnus Nunoo of Sachet and Bottled Water Producers and many, many more like them,? President Mahama noted.

Recounting her feelings, Mrs Quartey-Papafio said she felt very excited after the President?s comments and reiterated her commitment to even do more for the country.
She said a strong public-private partnership was what is needed to move the country forward.

Source: Frank Owusu-Ofori/thegeneraltelegraph

Accra, June 26, GNA – Mrs Kate Quartey-Papafio, an entrepreneur has call on government agencies to take advantage of technology by utilising its benefits in transacting business across all sector of the economy to save time and cost.

She expressed worry about the delay in agencies migrating from analog businesses to online platforms, saying “the country needs to be more proactive and be abreast of current global synergies for business transactions”.

She said the improvement of electronic-commerce has led to the derivation of various internet based activities, such that companies are able to conduct their business activities at all hours, reaching customers in all parts of the world.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mrs Quartey-Papafio said online utility bills payment has become the solution for consumers with busy life-styles, since consumers are able to save time, hassle and make their lives much easier.

Mrs Quartey-Papafio, also the Chief Executive Officer of Reroy Cables Limited, a subsidiary of Reroy Group, said although online utility bill payment has become one of the fastest growing trends in the world particularly in the US, the progress of households’ adopting to online utility bill payments is rather slothful.

She said it is about time for the country to ‘walk the talk’ by making effective use of these platforms because it has the benefits of avoiding crowds, queuing, parking problems, and cutting their travelling costs and time.

She said as fast-growing economies become exporters of capital, talent and innovation, the direction of capital flows is being adjusted in a way that is quite different from the traditional routes from developed-to-emerging and developed-to-developed countries.

Mrs Quartey-Papafio was of the view that, the power utility sector has a strong track record of making interconnectivity work within power systems.

She said matching internal culture to a new and changing digital customer is key challenge, and the country is filled with engineers but do not necessarily help to orient towards a customer-centric utility mindset.

She said digital transformation is top of company agenda, since more than 80 per cent of CEOs view digital technologies such as data mining and mobile customer engagement as important for their companies.

“An effective digital strategy can revolutionize all areas of the power utility business since it is the heart of the energy transformation challenge. Digital is affecting not just the way companies face their customers, but also bringing deep changes in the core operational activities of utilities”, she added.

Mrs Quartey-Papafio said most companies see smart phones as essential to improve customer relationships while others view it as an opportunity to offer new services beyond the energy spectrum.

“Technology has come to stay, and it behooves companies to take advantage of the opportunity to maximise its potential in improving the effectiveness of businesses.”

GNA

The Europe Business Assembly (EBA), an international corporation for the evolution and implementation of economic and social development has awarded Reroy Cables the best enterprise award for being a leader of the cable manufacturing industry in Africa.

The Chief Executive Officer of Reroy Cables, Kate Quartey-Papafio, has called on more businesses, especially those in the manufacturing sector, to operate a 24-hour cycle, to help improve productivity.

This, according to her, will help increase the volume of goods and services produced in the country to enable businesses to compete effectively with imported products and services whiles creating more jobs for the huge unemployed population.

“Industries need to operate on a 24-hour shift. With companies operating at full capacity more jobs will be created and the much needed growth we desire will be achieved,” she said in an interview with the B&FT at the closing ceremony of the Ghana International Power, Electrical and Electronics Expo (POWERELEC), in Accra.

Currently, few companies in the manufacturing sector do a 24-hour shift operation and a lot more of them, Mrs. Quartey-Papafio said, are required to join those operating around the clock operations.

The 24-hour economy has long been adopted by a good number of countries across the globe, where all workers do not go home at more or less the same time after an eight- or twelve-hour day.

In a 24-hour economy, the normal eight-hour working day is divided into three eight hour shifts, which means that workers have different times within the twenty-four hours at which they go to work and close from work.

Proponents argue that it helps raise productivity; some even say it has the potential to even out, to some extent, vehicular traffic distribution, thereby decreasing rush-hour traffic jams.

According to London First, a non-profit which wants to make London the best city in the world to do business, London’s night-time economy contributed £17.7bn to £26.3bn in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy in 2014.

Its economic activity directly supports 723,000 jobs – one in eight in London, and the big employers include not just hotels and restaurants (97,125 jobs) and arts and entertainment (46,592) but a whole range of industries.

These industries range from transport and storage (107,136); health and social work (101,282); admin and support services (62,150); professional, scientific and technical (59,803); wholesale, retail and repair (59,248); and information and communication (54,558).

London First said when indirect impacts are included, the night-time economy is responsible for 1.26 million jobs overall and £40.1bn GVA.

That figure is likely to grow by a further £1.63 billion a year by 2026, and by £2 billion a year by the end of that decade as another 66,000 jobs are added.

In Africa, Kenya has been making strides at running a 24-hour economy, although naysayers have cast doubts over how impactful the move has been since its adoption.

In 2009, that country put together a National 24-hour Economy Steering Committee, which produced a working paper outlining a strategy.

“The main objective of the initiative is to unlock the potential of the Kenyan economy, increase productivity and production, and create employment,” the working paper said.

“As envisaged by the Vision 2030 plan, Kenya is expected to move closer to the status of an advanced economy where a 24-hour market system is more the norm,” it added.

The call for a 24-hour economy in Ghana comes at a time power supply has been erratic, even though there has been a semblance of stability in recent months.

The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) in its latest business barometer survey found that the availability and cost of power is among the top two challenges facing industries in the country, which makes the proposition of a 24-hour business cycle a distant dream amid less than satisfactory consumer demand for made-in Ghana goods.

The head of Production at Reroy Limited, Mr. Samuel Rockson, has advised electrical contractors to use quality electrical cables and appliances for the execution of their works, to avoid fire outbreaks caused by electrical faults.

The use of inferior electrical cables for wiring and other electrical works, he said, had led to fire outbreaks and the loss of property and lives.

Mr. Rockson gave the advice on Wednesday at a seminar organised by Reroy Limited for the Western Regional branch of the Ghana Electrical Contractors Association (GECA).

The event which was on the theme, “ Buy Ghana, build Ghana and creating market for local industries”, was aimed at educating electricians and electrical contractors in the region on best practices in wiring and cable selection, to help reduce electricity -related fire incidents in the country.

More than 150 certified electricians attended the seminar and each of them were awarded with certificates of attendance.

Mr. Rockson advised Ghanaians to rely on local manufacturers for quality electrical cables instead of patronising imported substandard electrical cables, which could lead to fire outbreaks.

He asked individuals, who owned buildings to request for the service of certified electricians only for the wiring of their buildings.

He said the company, had received certification from the International Standards Organisation (ISO) and the Ghana Standards Authority and won the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana (CIMG) award for the best manufacturing company of the year in 2014.

The Public Relations Officer of Reroy Group, Mr. Anthony Mensah, stated that, the company was strategically positioned to deliver local content for the cable industry.

The company he said, remained focused on giving priority to Ghanaian cable manufacturers to enable them compete with their foreign counterpart.

He mentioned that, his outfit, would continue to sensitise electricians across the country occasionally, on the correct ways of wiring in order to ensure the safety of lives and properties.

“Electrical cables are high risk goods that is why we keep advising you to desist from patronising substandard ones. The price may seem cheaper to you but the risk involved in using inferior cables to wire premises is life threatening so let us all say no to inferior cables. The fight against substandard electrical cables and accessories should be a collective responsibility”, he advised.

Mr. Mensah reiterated that, electricians should take the advice given them seriously to prevent bad wiring, adding that, property owners should demand proper certification before allowing electricians to work on their properties.

From Raissa Sambou, Takoradi