Yesterday we welcomed almost 60 people from 25 of our Member companies and organisations to our New Year\u2019s Cocktail. This included our Ambassador Mr Jeroen Verheul as well as our Board Chair Mr Kofi Polley. GNBCC welcomed our guests on our refurbished terrace with freshly painted walls. Around 18:30 the General Manager Tjalling Wiarda gave the New Year\u2019s speech after which he toasted to the New Year and wished all the Members Afeheya Pa ! Below is his New Year\u2019s Speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear GNBCC Members ,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Welcome to our New Year\u2019s Cocktail. We can look back on a successful year with a Member increase to almost 110 members hence on a solid return to pre-covid numbers. In 2023 our financial recovery continued with a 2nd year of sound healthy result figures written in black instead of covid red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a professional level we are proud on our collaboration with the Netherlands Embassy which also benefits a great number of our Members. 2023 saw the dawn of the Horticulture Business Platform (HBP) , an important sub project under the umbrella of the Private Sector Development (PSD) project. HBP is of strategic importance to the Embassy (and us) that it hopefully becomes an independent project with its own budget next to PSD. As a result there will be more room for development of other projects under the PSD umbrella. Next to the horticulture focus our PSD project is also targeting women in business, the diaspora and the youth. For this last ambition GNBCC has been successfully working in 2023 with the Ghana Food Movement on the Youth in Food project, stimulating opportunities for the youth in food and horticulture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We also started cooperation in 2023 with IMANI to execute a research under our Members concerning the investment climate in Ghana; the results will be expected this spring after which we will present our conclusions and recommendations to the government. In this way we hope to have a positive contribution to the struggle of improving the Ghana business climate. We ended 2023 with our annual business breakfast for our Premium Members ; here IMANI presented the 1st preliminary results of our survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year we also organised a great number of cocktails and our annual flagship event with our colleagues from South Africa (GSABC) and this your also our brothers from Belgium (GBBC) ; it was held at our ambassador\u2019s residence and again we broke new records in amount of guests. We are getting more & more famous for the good reasons of enjoyment & networking !<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We will continue our progress in 2024 \u2013 we issued a member survey in December 2023 and were content to find out that our Membership satisfaction scoring rate was 76% . GNBCC remains a Member organisation headed by our Board under the leadership of Mr Kofi Polley who took over the helm half way 2023 from Cindy Noordermeer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
2023 saw also the start of a somewhat regular range of articles on doing business in Ghana published on Linked In by myself and republished on GNBCC\u2019s social media as well as in our Newsletter. A lot of positive feedback has been created with these articles plus more visibility for GNBCC .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2024 will be a challenging year due to the elections at the end of this year. This year no improvements of the business climate are expected due to the financial shortages. There are many challenges that lie ahead for Ghana as it proceeds with its recovery process under the IMF program. Due to the program’s conditions, the fiscal space will be severely constrained, leading to economic difficulties. It has been evident for some time that the government will implement an aggressive revenue mobilization campaign. We urge members to be prepared as the government will be rolling out a series of new taxes and the GRA will probably make several visits to your company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Business operations are likely to face significant challenges due to the power challenges caused by indebtedness to power producers. We predict that the government will raise utility tariffs to pay off its debts, which will have a major impact on the cost of doing business. Added are the problems within the cocoa industry such as the cocoa shortages which halted cocoa processors as well as the expected introduction of import restrictions on essential food products such as rice, offal, poultry, cooking oil, fruit juices, noodles, pasta, fish, sugar and canned tomatoes. These import restrictions have the potential to escalate food prices potentially threatening food security. Given the uncertain economic conditions and the electioneering period, we understand the complexities in planning your business operations, but we believe that these issues are temporary and 2025 will be better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We as GNBCC remain committed to improve and work on a better Ghana because we believe in Ghana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With a strong Board plus Management & Staff plus enthousiastic active Members GNBCC can continue to grow to remain one of the leading Business Councils in Ghana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I want to raise the glass on 2024 and say Afeheya Pa and good luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday we welcomed almost 60 people from 25 of our Member companies and organisations to our New Year\u2019s Cocktail. This included our Ambassador Mr Jeroen Verheul as well as our Board Chair Mr Kofi Polley. GNBCC welcomed our guests on our refurbished terrace with freshly painted walls. Around 18:30 the General Manager Tjalling Wiarda gave<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":12835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-networking-cocktails"],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12081,"url":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/gnbcc-annual-new-years-cocktail-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":12833,"position":0},"title":"GNBCC Annual New Year\u2019s Cocktail 2025","author":"Michael Teye","date":"September 26, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday evening, we hosted our Annual New Year\u2019s Cocktail at the GNBCC Gardens. This event turned out to be the most attended cocktail we\u2019ve ever had in our garden, largely due to the much-anticipated\u00a0special announcement. In attendance were our valued members, the Deputy Ambassador of the Netherlands Embassy, embassy staff,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2025-01-31_0_DEA_WK_1_19.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2025-01-31_0_DEA_WK_1_19.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2025-01-31_0_DEA_WK_1_19.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2025-01-31_0_DEA_WK_1_19.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14607,"url":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/gnbcc-new-years-cocktail-2026\/","url_meta":{"origin":12833,"position":1},"title":"Invitation: GNBCC New Year\u2019s Networking Cocktail","author":"Michael Teye","date":"January 30, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The Ghana Netherlands Business & Culture Council (GNBCC) is delighted to announce its New Year\u2019s Cocktail, scheduled to take place on Thursday, 5th February 2026, from 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM, at Mama Cuisine. Hosted at Mama Cuisine and powered by Tale","rel":"","context":"In "GNBCC Updates"","block_context":{"text":"GNBCC Updates","link":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/category\/gnbcc-updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GNBCC-Tale-Beer-New-Year-Cocktail-22233.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GNBCC-Tale-Beer-New-Year-Cocktail-22233.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GNBCC-Tale-Beer-New-Year-Cocktail-22233.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GNBCC-Tale-Beer-New-Year-Cocktail-22233.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GNBCC-Tale-Beer-New-Year-Cocktail-22233.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12790,"url":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/new-years-cocktail-announcement\/","url_meta":{"origin":12833,"position":2},"title":"New Year\u2019s Cocktail announcement","author":"Tracy Mensah","date":"January 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"To all registered GNBCC Members, SAVE THE DATE !!! The GNBCC Board, Management and staff are inviting all \u00a0GNBCC Members to a New Year's reception on January 25, 2024\u00a0as from \u00a05:00 PM at the GNBCC Garden. Please click\u00a0here\u00a0to register. Happy New Year ! Strictly for GNBCC members only.","rel":"","context":"In "News Articles"","block_context":{"text":"News Articles","link":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/category\/news-articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2024-01-12_0_GNBCC_new_years_cocktail.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2024-01-12_0_GNBCC_new_years_cocktail.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2024-01-12_0_GNBCC_new_years_cocktail.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15005,"url":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/new-years-cocktail-organized-by-gnbcc-in-partnership-with-tale-beer-hosted-by-mama-cuisine\/","url_meta":{"origin":12833,"position":3},"title":"New Year\u2019s Cocktail: Organized by GNBCC in Partnership with Tale Beer, Hosted by Mama Cuisine","author":"Grace Agorigo","date":"February 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Thursday, in keeping with our annual tradition to kickstart the year, we held our New Year\u2019s networking cocktail at Mama Cuisine in Accra for the first time, partnering with GNBCC member, Tale Beer.","rel":"","context":"In "Networking Cocktails"","block_context":{"text":"Networking Cocktails","link":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/category\/networking-cocktails\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/NEW-YEARS-COCKTAIL.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/NEW-YEARS-COCKTAIL.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/NEW-YEARS-COCKTAIL.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/NEW-YEARS-COCKTAIL.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/NEW-YEARS-COCKTAIL.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12982,"url":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/gnbcc-eurocham-joint-cocktail\/","url_meta":{"origin":12833,"position":4},"title":"GNBCC & EUROCHAM JOINT COCKTAIL","author":"Tracy Mensah","date":"March 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night GNBCC together with Eurocham organised a joint cocktail for its members. This was also to celebrate that as from 2024 GNBCC is joining the Eurocham . The evening was officially opened by GNBCC's GM Tjalling Wiarda where he welcomed Eurocham's Executive Board Members Andrea Ghia and Nicolas Gebara.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News Articles"","block_context":{"text":"News Articles","link":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/category\/news-articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2024-03-28_0_GNBCC__EUROCHAM_JOINT_COCKTAIL.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2024-03-28_0_GNBCC__EUROCHAM_JOINT_COCKTAIL.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2024-03-28_0_GNBCC__EUROCHAM_JOINT_COCKTAIL.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2024-03-28_0_GNBCC__EUROCHAM_JOINT_COCKTAIL.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3960,"url":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/invitation-gnbcc-new-years-cocktail\/","url_meta":{"origin":12833,"position":5},"title":"Invitation: GNBCC New Year’s Cocktail","author":"Tracy Mensah","date":"January 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"We would like to invite all GNBCC Members to our New Year's Cocktail,\u00a0on Thursday, the 30th of\u00a0January, 2025\u00a0from 17:00 to 20:30.","rel":"","context":"In "Networking Cocktails"","block_context":{"text":"Networking Cocktails","link":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/category\/networking-cocktails\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/2025-01-10_0_JOINT_COCKTAIL_.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/2025-01-10_0_JOINT_COCKTAIL_.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/2025-01-10_0_JOINT_COCKTAIL_.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2024-01-26_0_New_Years_Cocktail.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12837,"href":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12833\/revisions\/12837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gnbcc.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}