Ghana's Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF) seeks to influence "government policies and regulations in order to create an enabling environment for a private sector-led economic growth strategy and national development".   Associations are a group of people joined together for a shared purpose; in the case of business associations, the commonality is the business of members. Business Associations the world over have a potential to facilitate the development of a strong private sector by representing the interests of business and providing specific support to their members.  The recognition of this truism has informed the current drive of the Foundation to explore options available in strengthening business associations (used in this context to include trade associations). This is because the potential of business associations to contribute to a conducive policy environment would not be attained if the associations remain weak.

PEF wishes to encourage small business units to come together to form larger business units, and so take advantage of the benefits of such units with respect to funding, management   expertise  and technology.The Ghanaian business scene is dominated by a large number of small "one-man" businesses that make quite a substantial contribution to the national economy.    However, such small businesses are highly constrained by limited access to funding, management expertise and efficient technology.Though the benefits of forming large business units with respect to funding, management expertise and technology are generally acknowledged, the local businesses still remain small and are unwilling to pool resources together to form larger business units.

Ghana with a population of over 20 million has only about 250,000 fixed telephone lines, mainly in Accra   and Kumasi. With the advent   of privatization in the   telecommunication sector, there are presently six operators providing voice telephony   and the number of telephone lines is said to have increased considerably. In spite of all these, the quality of reception is poor and a greater majority of people in the country are y et to have access to telephone services.  There   are also delays and difficulty in accessing   telephone liines by private businesses.  The problem of inadequate facilities and service delivery in the  sector  thus becomes pronounced.

The debate on privatizing state-run companies such as Ghana Water Company Limited, and making them more efficient has been going on for some time now. Until any concrete decision is taken, efforts have to be made to ensure efficient services delivery to tt1e private sector.

Water is one of the major inputs in industrial activities. Are the attitudes of the?

GWCL staff and the processes of service delivery supportive to the private sector in Ghana? If yes, how can we maintain the standards and work towards improvement? If no, what are the bottlenecks and the measures needed to make the firm's activities more supportive to the private sector than before?

corporate governance is the set of arrangements through which organizations account to their stakeholders. Good corporate governance requires accountability to a broad stakeholder-group including shareholders, creditors, employees, customers, suppliers, and all categories of persons who come into contact with a company's day-to-day activities. This perspective on corporate governance is applicable to all kinds of firms irrespective of ownership structure,and requires organizations to balance interests of all stakeholders. Good corporate governance supports and sustains economic growth by promoting the efficient use of resources and by creating conditions   that attract both domestic and foreign investment.