By Joyce Kantam Kolamong
The Chartered Institute of Supply Chain Management (CISCM), has rounded up its International Supply Chain Week celebration with a public lecture on integrated supply chain management in Tamale.
The lecture centred on how African governments and leaders can adopt an integrated approach to implementing a policy structure that will focus on producing local content to speed up the economic development of countries and the continent at large.
Lead Executive of CISCM, Richard Asante Amoah, in his lecture, emphasised the importance of integrated supply chain management in facilitating development and called on organisations and businesses to incorporate it into their processes for the greater good.
The Chartered Institute of Supply Chain Management (CISCM), is the most prominent professional body for those who are developing a career in Supply Chain Management.
The Institute was founded by a number of people from the profession who recognised the need to develop standards in Supply Chain Management practices as well as increase the number of trained and qualified personnel who were required in a rapidly developing country.
Today, there has been a progressive shift in focus from purchasing to supply chain management, and the Institute has recognised this fact by using its title, “Supply Chain Management.” Worldwide, there is a growing awareness of the strategic importance of efficient and effective supply chain management objectives. Therefore, the Institute is constantly aware of and adapting to the changes occurring in the field of supply chain management, both nationally and internationally.
The weeklong celebration of the International Supply Chain saw the institute organise a forum on supply chain management for women, induction and investiture, and a public lecture in Tamale to round it up.
It was attended by officials from VRA, NEDco, security agencies, students, and other stakeholders.
Lead Executive of CISCM, Richard Asante Amoah, said, as global trading increases, and advances in technology occur, it will become essential for enterprises to adapt to the constant changes in the business environment. And it is for this reason that CISCM is highlighting the practice of Integrated Supply Chain Principles and its outcomes globally for all to see what Ghana, and for that matter, Africa, can craft.
He called for sustainable local content development to boost the activities of local industries and ensure economic growth. He said, “God has given us that momentum to derive what we call local content development, which simply means that Africans should be able to provide what our needs are, so that we can also export the rest, and if we do that, it will help us a lot. Apart from increasing our gross domestic product, it will also bring some shocks to imported inflation that we unnecessarily bring to ourselves since everybody needs a foreign thing. But if we are able to do it and do it well and compete with the standards of the developed world, then of course we should be able to manage all this. And we have what we call the local local within the local content development.”
Mr. Amoah acknowledged the many industries and factories scattered across the country; however, he said leaders have failed to take pragmatic steps to sustain them. “There are certain metrics we use in reviewing whether businesses are sustainable now, and those metrics are the needed society, technology economies of scale, good environmental issues and political will. Do we have that? Do we have the legal will, separation of powers?”
Mr. Amoah called on the government and political leaders to begin integrating supply chain management into their decisions for value returns. “In my presentation, I made it clear. I said whether a 24-hour economy or digital economy, without an integrated supply chain, it will still become political jargon or rhetoric. It is about time that all political leaders start thinking integrated supply chain, which means making sure your objective is apt, having all the needed resources on time to be able to deliver, and making sure we have the value that we are expecting; otherwise, the spate of getting a lot of waste in the system will be high. We also want to tell our political leaders that the interest should be a common interest—what we call a corporate interest for Ghana or Africa—instead of personal interest.”
Lead Consultant for CISCM, Dr. James Kofi Chamenyi, called on individuals, organisations, and businesses to join the integrated supply chain management profession to gain expertise in planning and decision-making.
CISCM presented a Corporate Members Certificate to the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDco).
The lecture was held in collaboration with NEDCO, VRA, and other partners on “INTEGRATED SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT; A CATALYST FOR DEVELOPMENT”.
