Be Prepared For Challenges At All Times …CEO Ndoum Urges Entrepreneurs and Investors

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Group Ndoum (GN), Dr. Papa says there will be challenges but as investors or entrepreneurs, it’s important to be prepared for it at all times.
Speaking at a one-day Seminar organized by Group Ndoum, held at RLJ Kendeja Resort and Villas, the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Group Ndoum (GN), Dr. Papa Kwesi Ndoum said that Liberia needs people who will take chance to invest in order to make things to happen, and it is also important to note that entrepreneurship is not really about quivering business skill, spreadsheet and marketing plans, it is all about the way a person thinks.
Dr. Ndoum stated that any country that promotes entrepreneurship is prepared to grow and every country needs entrepreneurial attitude for total change or development. He further said that the big companies are necessary, but it’s the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) that makes society more active. However, they want responsible SME citizens and committed to pay taxes which is very important to every country.
He added that failure is not the alternative to success, it is just something to be avoided but it’s also only a temporary setback on a bigger, more significant course. Everybody encounters failure at point or another but what truly matters is a person’s response to it and learn from their failure.
“Group Ndoum (GN) believes in building a culture that continually strives to go beyond excellence in work and in relationships with clients and the society at large as well as share success with employees, communities and shareholders,” CEO, Ndoum intimated.

He said because of the good work done by LEDFC in Liberia, they have signed on an agreement for an additional US$ 20 million to come in, and also called on Liberians to remain committed in paying their loans.
Also speaking at the seminar, USAID Mission Director to Liberia Sara Walter mentioned that the available data tells in clear an unambiguous term that everyone is simply wrong to do so, and major corporations have been and will always be an important feature of Liberian economic landscape. But they produce little to no spill-over effects. They are highly capital intensive and do not create the numbers of kinds of jobs they need to spur broad-based, inclusive growth.
Madam Walter further said that the available data tells different story when it comes to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). SMEs account for 80 percent of economic activity in Liberia and create employment 90 percent of the workforce.
“We know the people who struggle daily to operate these jobs-creating SMEs in the face of tremendous odds. They are fishermen, who row out of sea every morning in their canoes from West Point, Robertsfield and Marshall to bring home the grouper, snappers and cassava fishes that fill our plates,” Madam Walter expressed.
She further explained that the market women also make their way in keh-kehs and on pehn-pehns to Red Light and bring to central Monrovia the rice, bitter balls, okra, cassava leaves, potato greens, amongst other things that fill the local markets. They are the men and women who own and operate the cook shops, barber shops and beauty salons that everyone frequents.
For his part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/ Country Coordinator of LEDFC Ambrose G. Houphouet said the country Liberia is facing her fair share of challenges that have confronted the global economy, and it has led to economic slowdown and has also affected several businesses, mainly the SMEs, some of whom are represented at the seminar.
CEO Houphouet narrated that the objective of the seminar is to firstly re-orient business owners to understand that the environment has changed and those demand change in their way of thinking and approach of doing business; to encourage customers and their potential customers to be open and discuss with their leaders the challenges facing their businesses.
He concluded that every customer must explore innovative way of doing business through competitive pricing, product development and customer service and to create the platform for business owners and key stakeholder to collaborate, network and build synergies for development.