加纳总统马哈马警告非洲各国政府不要通过过度监管来扼杀创新。

他警告说，这种做法正在扼杀私营部门的增长并破坏非洲大陆的经济潜力。

马哈马总统周四在正在举行的第九届非洲发展问题东京国际会议（TICAD IX）期间的公私企业对话中表示，公共部门必须改变其做法，将企业视为真正的发展伙伴，而不是对手。

“公共部门必须将私营部门视为合作伙伴，而不是刺激者，” 他说。“过去，这个行业只是为了利润等等。因此，公共部门倾向于排挤私营部门。”

马哈马认为，政府经常口头上宣扬私营部门是 “增长引擎” 的想法，但未能为企业运作提供有利条件。

“现在，每个人都使用陈词滥调，即私营部门是增长的引擎。但是，如果您不给发动机提供正确的燃料、健康的燃料、发动机和液压油，使其能够正常运行，发动机将如何运行呢？这就是公共部门的作用。我们必须制定一项政策，为私营部门的发展创造有利环境的框架。”

马哈马强调，不能指望私营企业在没有盈利的情况下承担发展的负担。

“私营部门不是圣诞老人。它将去可以获得良好投资回报率的地方。因此，政府有责任为公共部门创造发挥创造力的空间，而这正是我们需要重新定位公共部门做的事情。”

马哈马回顾了他担任通信部长期间的繁重许可规则曾经如何削弱了加纳新兴的 ICT 行业。

“我担任通信部长，当时科技 ICT 行业呈爆炸式增长，人们回家要求开设网吧的许可证，如果你看到我们的监管机构和你必须满足的条件等等，我的意思是，这简直太疯狂了。

“我的意思是，当你浏览那份清单时，你将无法开始任何事情。所以当我成为部长时，我说，但为什么呢？为什么要许可它们？如果你想开一家网吧，为什么不直接开它，如果你有投资的话？当我们这样做时，网吧在全国范围内爆炸式增长。他们没有造成任何伤害。他们没有导致任何政变，什么都没有。”

他说，类似的心态几乎破坏了电信自由化，人们担心向私人投资者开放该行业会危及国家安全。

“当我们放开电信领域时，他们说，哦，电信非常重要。你不能把它交给私营部门。你知道，它很敏感。中央情报局会听我们的谈话等等。我的意思是，今天，看看电信行业。它对非洲增长的 GDP 做出了巨大贡献。”

马哈马认为，如果政府继续用监管扼杀行业，非洲的年轻人就无法充分发挥他们的创造潜力。

“因此，我们需要做的是为年轻人创造合适的环境，让他们茁壮成长。我们不应该过度监管。

他回忆起加纳金融科技领域参与者在竞选期间提出的担忧。

“去年竞选期间，我会见了金融科技公司，我问他们，你们有什么问题？他们说，过度监管。你为什么不放宽它，这样我们就可以投资更多？

“因此，我认为我们在保护和试图监管等方面绝不能过于敏感。[我们]必须创造空间，让这些年轻人能够发挥他们的创造性才能，并为我们国家的可持续增长做出贡献。”

President John Mahama has cautioned African governments against stifling innovation through excessive regulation.

He warned that such practices are choking private sector growth and undermining the continent’s economic potential.

Speaking at a private-public business dialogue during the ongoing 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IX) on Thursday, President Mahama stated that the public sector must change its approach and treat businesses as genuine partners in development, rather than adversaries.

“The public sector must see the private sector as partners and not an irritant,” he said. “In the past, it was like this sector is just about profit and all that. And so the public sector had tended to crowd out the private sector.”

He argued that governments often pay lip service to the idea of the private sector as the “engine of growth” but fail to provide the enabling conditions for businesses to function.

“Now, everybody uses the hackneyed phrase that the private sector is an engine of growth. But how does an engine operate if you don’t give it the right fuel, healthy fuel, engine and hydraulic oil, for it to be able to operate properly? And so that’s the role of the public sector. We must createa policy that creates the framework for an enabling environment for the private sector to grow.”

Mahama stressed that private enterprise cannot be expected to bear the burden of development without profitability.

“The private sector is not Father Christmas. It will go where it can get a good rate of return on investment. And so it’s government’s duty to create the space for the public sector to exercise its creativity, and that is what we need to reorient the public sector to do.”

Drawing from his time as Minister of Communications, Mahama recalled how burdensome licensing rules once crippled Ghana’s emerging ICT industry.

“I was Minister of Communications in the early days when the tech ICT sector was exploding and people were coming home and asking for licenses to set up internet cafes, and if you saw our regulator and the conditions you had to meet and all that, I mean, it was just crazy.

"I mean, by the time you go through that list, you’ll not be able to start anything. And so when I became Minister, I said, but why? Why license them? If you want to set up an internet cafe, why don’t you just open it, if you have the investment? And when we did, internet cafes exploded across the country. They didn’t cause any harm. They didn’t lead to any coup d’état, nothing.”

He said a similar mindset nearly derailed telecom liberalisation, with fears that opening up the sector to private investors would jeopardise national security.

“When we’re liberalising our telecom space, they said, Oh, telecom is so important. You cannot give it to the private sector. You know, it’s sensitive. The CIA would listen to our conversations and all that. I mean, today, look at the telecom sector. It’s contributing so much to the GDP of Africa’s growth.”

According to Mahama, Africa’s youth cannot unleash their full creative potential if governments continue to suffocate industries with regulations.

“So what we need to do is to create the right environment for the young people to thrive. We should not overregulate.”

He recalled concerns raised by players in Ghana’s financial technology space during his campaign.

“I met with the FinTech last year during the campaign, and I was asking them, What are your problems? And they said, over-regulation. Why don’t you ease it up so that we can invest more?

"And so I think that we must not be too sensitive in guarding and trying to regulate and all that. [We] must create the space so that these young people can exercise their creative talents and contribute to sustainable growth in our countries.”

来源：Joy Online

编译：草语云意

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