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Speech by the 5th President of the Ghana Consulting Engineers Association, Ing. Magnus Lincoln Quarshie at the 2021 Annual General Meeting Held on the 9th December 2021

Salutation

➢ Ing. President Albert Viala des Bordes

➢ Past Presidents

➢ Council Member

➢ Dear Colleagues and friends

First of all, thank you for electing me as the President of GCEA for the next Council Year

When I received a call plus the nomination form – let me be optimistic, I just felt life well lived is a call to service. Ing. President and Colleagues I accept to be president and you just heard me affirm this in the solemn oath. May God help us all.

Before I continue, let me use the opportunity to eulogize our founding fathers who through their toil have brought the Association. this far. Permit me to single out some Living Legends

➢ Ing. Asare Yeboah and Team Associated Consultants

➢ Ing. Akwaboah

➢ Ing. Joe Okyere

➢ Ing. Albert Ogyiri

Thank You so much for holding us together all this while. Thanks to Past Presidents, council members, and member firms, and individuals who continue to serve in diverse ways.

Led by Ing. Viala in the past council year and the last council we have made in roads

· Seeking waivers for taxes on consulting services

· Input to Local Content and promoting Visibility of the association

During the next council year, we should continue efforts made by the past council

There are a number of Challenges with with the Consulting Practice Business in Ghana but I am optimistic that they are surmountable. Africa for that matter Ghana is the best place to be at this time in terms of infrastructure development. The last infrastructure report card which focused on water, energy and the transportation sectors revealed that our infrastructure level was graded D. Evidently it is a case of building to fit for purpose needless to say building infrastructure that last forever.

The appears to be so much going on, however many of our local firms are either not involved and in some cases they are like third party level participants. As a country with a huge deficit of infrastructure her engineering firms are key and cannot be bystanders or relegated to the background. The consulting industry sector like in other organized countries is a key driver for industry and academia relationship where many students go through internship and mentorship. This will not happen with the going trend where local consulting businesses do not thrive. It is sad to find brilliant young graduates sitting at bank counters, or walking about the city as salesmen for banks because they cannot find placement in the Consulting and Construction industry. This must change and yes we can as a country and the political will

cannot be left out even though as a sector we need to keep knocking on doors and keep the lobby for the growth and sustainability of the sector.

Of course as businesses, firms exists today to make profit, to ensure that the people we engage and the people among whom we work for in the various communities benefit from our skills and knowledge and at the same time we adopt options in our design and advice protect the planet, in the right parlance referred to as the triple bottomline.

I am able to confirm from a recent research I carried out the fast level of attrition of local firms. This research led to a MBA – Leadership and Sustainability – Building Sustainable Enterprise: A case of Succession Planning.

We still hear of firms from the other side some of which are over 100 years in consulting and construction practice such as Mott Macdonald, Keir Construction, Atkins to name a few.

In the next council year I pledge to lead the council to continue the good work by the past council in the areas, of developing local content policies for national discourse, creating visibility for the GCEA.

We intend also to look at the area of Succession planning and Sustainability of Consulting Businesses. Too often we tend to think these only happen when we have made a lot of profit. Rather we need to get our house in order in a manner that gives and brings security to young professionals to remain in the practice with the assurance of growth. We need to change the way we do business through constant research and development. We need to continue to engage all stakeholders including the government, the major employer in Ghana, state agencies and private developers in order to transform our communities and make our skills and knowledge through our firms more relevant to improving the quality of life amongst the people we serve.

Together we can

Long live GCEA

Long live Ghana