Ghana can industrialise with the right leadership, right policy and the political will

Addressing the closing ceremony of a workshop organized for NPP researchers from the ten regions Wednesday, Nana Addo, the Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party according to the NPP Communications Directorate is reported to have stated that “his party is preparing a comprehensive programme of industrialization and modernization that can transform Ghana’s economy in a matter of one decade.”

Itemizing the many natural resources such as gold, land, and now oil in addition to cocoa Nana Addo said:

“This newfound wealth presents an additional opportunity for a visionary leader with a programme to take critical steps to transform our economy. If we continued on the old path to rely on crude oil exports, we would end up getting the same low value economy that we have gotten from gold and cocoa over the last century. This must change.”
Drawing inspiration from Lula de Silva of Brazil Nana Addo added “With the right programme in place, in the next ten years, Ghana can become a self-sustainable, confident economy, in many ways, with an extensive, modern agricultural industry that will feed our neighbours and beyond.”
According to the NPP Communications Directorate Nana Addo told the cheering crowd that “Ghana has the landmass, natural resources, human resource, political stability, economic freedoms and individual freedoms that can be consciously optimized to transform our economy and bring prosperity to every Ghanaian door step. We must get going. We need that can-do leadership vim to get us going and fast,”

I do not doubt Ghana's ability to industrialize. What has been lacking since 1966 is the lack of leadership, policy and the political will to implement the needed policies. If Nkrumah could let it happen in Tema, Aboadze, Akosombo, Takoradi, Kumasi and Accra, I do not see why it cannot be done in Ho, Wa, and Tamale. What is needed is the political will. I thought the leaders who came after Nkrumah could do it but they simply lack the courage and the will to do it. No nation has ever solved her unemployment problem, built schools, roads, and houses or sent a man to the moon based on agriculture economy. From China to Hong Kong, to Malaysia to Singapore, South Korea to Taiwan the evidence is clear. It has been industrialization through technology acquisition and human capacity building. Ghana needs to do the same. Now that we have recognized that we need to industrialize we need to develop the strategies that will let it happen.

Lord Adusei