Mrs Esther Amba Numaba Cobbah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Strategic Communication, has noted that conflicts related to natural resources were too frequent especially in some parts of Africa.
She attributed the problem to the tendency of some of the extractive companies who failed to appreciate the need to promote “a very cordial working relationship”, with host communities.
She said finding and producing natural resources, especially oil and gold, was not about deploying expensive and massive hardware, but rather required sound working relationship with the local people.
Mrs Cobbah, a former Public Relations Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, said this in a lecture on: “All things work for good,” at the Springboard Africa Road Show 2011 in Sunyani.
The road show on the theme: “Turning Point,” was organised by Legacy and Legacy, a human capital firm in partnership with Corporate Ghana.
The event which was attended by more than 200 people comprising students and businessmen was aimed at helping the participants to achieve their full potentials in the areas of planning, investment, entrepreneurship, career enhancement and relationships.
Mrs Cobbah said it was fortunate to note that companies were now beginning to pay more attention “to the social aspects of business and they now talk of earning a social license to operate and set aside resources to fulfil corporate social responsibilities to communities in which they are operating”.
She said foreign companies need to have knowledge of the overall environment of the country in order to pay attention to the technical potential being promoted.
The Reverend Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, CEO of Databank, advised the participants, especially the students, to adopt the culture of savings and invest their monies for the future instead of spending such monies on frivolous things.
“Savings is good but it is not sufficient to lead you to the path of financial dependence,” Rev Tettey stated.
The CEO told the students that they could grow to become financially independent if they define their goals, respect time, create investment accounts and monitor the accounts regularly”.