Ghanaian celebrated actor, John Dumelo, has always been described as one of the few business minded actors we have in Ghana and West Africa.
However, his recent comments have made me realize he does not merit that ‘business-minded’ accolade at all! From a report I read on GhanaCelebrities.Com headlined “Reduce Or Remove Mobile Phone Import Tax Across Africa – John Dumelo Urges African Governments.”
The supposed business-minded John Dumelo advised African leaders to reduce or completely eliminate import taxes on mobile phones and other communication devices. John Dumelo made the plea when he addressed students of the Harvard Business School in Boston, USA on Saturday 1st March, 2014.
Quoting him: “completely reducing or completely eliminating import taxes on mobile phones makes the device more affordable to the ordinary African thus making dissemination of information easier and that adversely affects positive development across the continent.”
The Economic and Social “senselessness” in John’s suggestion…
If African leaders reduce or completely reduce import taxes on mobile phones and other communication devices, the effect is that we shall be motivating the mobile phone manufacturing companies in other continents to produce more and more phones, because they know after producing huge quantities of phones, they have less taxes to pay to export them to Africa.
Through the production of more phones and communication devices, their net profit goes up or they end up making supernormal profit. By so doing, their government would get more tax revenue from them through corporate taxation.
As they make more profit and demand for their products soar, they shall expand their factories and administrative set ups to recruit more skilled and unskilled labour; thereby, creating more employment for their nationals. As their phones and communication devices flood our market, the love for them stereotypes our minds; thereby, making us has a strong proclivity for foreign products.