He said the attitudes of employees towards work must be treated as a national issue and given serious attention to help sustain private businesses and called for a nationwide sensitisation programme to tackle it.

Mr Turkson, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sonturk Super Markets, the leading supermarket company in the Central Region, said these at the inauguration of its newest branch at Twifo Praso over the weekend.

The Twifo Praso branch brings to four the number of Sonturk Supermarkets with the others being sited at Kasoa, Mankessim and Cape Coast.

Customers were seen filling through the newest modern and classic supper market as soon as it opened its doors for business as it offered a very good selection of the leading brands of packaged goods,  groceries, local and foreign grains, electrical home appliances and a very-wide range of wines.

Mr Turkson said bad work attitudes and dishonesty in the private sector has undermined the growth and successes of businesses because people who will have loved to venture into the sector to create employment for the teeming unemployed youth are reluctant to do so.

He said the success of every business to a large extent is based on loyalty, trust and positive work attitude of employees but unfortunately these important traits were hard to come by.

Mr Turkson expressed worry that some employees have a hidden agenda to quickly amass wealth and embezzle monies belonging to their employers adding that this could lead to the collapse of many companies.

"This is one of the main reasons people don't want to set up businesses and resulting in high unemployment rate in this country", Mr Turkson said.

He said it was not surprising that many indigenous businesses in the country are being managed by family and friends.

Citing his experiences over the years, the business mogul, recounted how he started on a modest note and with the support of banks and a dint of hard work and resilience had reached this far.

He said he now has eight cases in court where related salesmen have embezzled funds for the company. We go for a loan from the bank to do business. How do you expect us to continue to stay in business if our workers are constantly stealing from us, he said.