Deputy Minister for Communications, Mr. Ato Sarpong, has joined experts in the telephony industry in Ghana to unveil a national dialogue on timekeeping, with a call on Ghanaians to respect time in order to promote socio-economic growth and development in the country.
Themed: “Time, a critical Factor in Ghana’s Development,” the national dialogue on timekeeping forms part of a series of behavioural and social change activities to be pursued by Transformational Leadership Concepts (TLC) in Ghana.
The National Dialogue on Timekeeping is the brainchild of GELIS Communications and supported by some well-meaning Ghanaians including organisations like the Journalists for Business Advocacy.
GELIS is a multi-disciplinary communications company with the passion for providing solutions to contemporary communications needs.
To be able to achieve this national objective, GELIS has established a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called “TLC” (Transformational Leadership Concepts) which is the vehicle which will drive this transformational agenda.
Launching the initiative in Accra yesterday, Mr. Sarpong expressed disgust about the continuous lack of time management of majority of Ghanaians, saying that the bad timekeeping in Ghana makes the nation loses its economic prospective.
Against this backdrop, the deputy minister warned Ghanaians, particularly public servants, who have the penchant of attending public functions late to put a stop to it.
He said public servants waste too much time during public functions which is a major source of worry to all.
“Time is a resource we need to manage and manage well. Ghanaians should see time as a natural resource that they must utilise and utilise well. Lack of respect for time by majority of Ghanaians is a great worry to the state. Do not misuse your time,” Mr. Sarpong advised Ghanaians.
He also advised leaders and chief executive officers (CEOs) to take pride in their work no matter how much it will cost them.
He was particularly adamant about individuals and stakeholders sowing time to be able to articulate issues to help them make the right decisions available to them.
According to him, most people trade their time for money instead of utilising it for good use, and emphasised on the numerous reasons why there was the need to invest “our time to help us in our everyday lives rather than opting to either spend, trade or reverse it.”
For his party, Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr. Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng, noted that the inability of Ghanaians to keep and manage their time judiciously was drawing the nation back.
According to him, the amount of resources that are wasted due to lateness run into billions of Ghana cedis in money terns, stressing that people who are late to work are obviously not working because they are not at work.
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