Captain (Rtd) Prince Kofi Amoabeng, the co-founder of erstwhile UT Bank has said small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must be open to a partnership but must tread cautiously in ceding the entire business to investors.
Speaking with Kwaku Nhyira-Addo on the Asaase Breakfast Show Tuesday (14 December 2021) Amoabeng said the vision bearer “must make sure to keep majority interest at all cost.”
On what Amoabeng’s suggestion would be for young people going into businesses, he said, “What I will tell them is; they should be very careful when it comes to partnerships and dealing with shares allocation and controlling interest. When people are starting a business it’s like Kwaku accompany me to Registrar General … and they’ll say oh you need two directors to form a company so sign here [and that’s it], then when it comes to shareholding you say it’s 50-50, you’ve made a mistake from the word go…”
He added, “So the one who’s had the vision, who’s driving it must make sure to keep majority interest at cost. Partnerships will bring a bit of equity because whoever is coming in, is supposed to bring in money that will support the business or time or expertise but my warning is that be very careful how you distribute the shareholding of the company. If you don’t do it right it will come to bite you.”
Amoabeng says his UT Bank partnership was the most successful compared to his other business interests.
Currently, there are only a few partnerships in the business sector in the country that has stood the test of time with most hitting a snag at various stages of the business.
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