By Alfred MENSAH-ONUMAH
Dear Mr. President,
I wish to state that time answers everything and that God makes things beautiful in His time. I write to first congratulate you on your election and swearing-in as the first gentleman of our Motherland Ghana for the next four years, ending January 7, 2029.
As a proud Ghanaian and someone who believes in positivity and hard work, I strongly believe in individual’s contribution to achieving the desired state that we (Ghanaians) wish to see Ghana gets to. These 20 highlights/ pointers are my inert convictions to help build our homeland Ghana in attaining self-sufficiency in the medium to long term.
Pointers:
- Redevelopment/realignment of the Tema Freezone enclave. Thus, taking a re-look at the Free zones Act 1995, Act 504.
- Initiating the development of the Western Freezones enclave and the Kumasi Industrial Park will undoubtedly be one of your economic save lines in creating jobs in the medium to long term and a hallmark of economic excellence when implemente
- Seek to enhance cohesion in the best productive manner between Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (G.I.P.C), Ghana Free Zones Authoriry (G.F.Z.A) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (M.O.T.I).
- Establishing and appreciating sectorial/industrial deficits, starting with the ‘low-hanging fruits’ and develop actional ways of reducing the deficits to achieve self-sufficiency and self-sustenance in the long term.
- Revisiting the quest to limit importation of certain items/commodities industry by industry as started by the former government, led by the Ministry of Trade and Industry but didn’t see the light of day due to the lack of comprehensive stakeholder engagements in developing the blueprint. (To kick–start a very comprehensive stakeholder engagement – Import substitution strategies with KPI’s).
- A re-look at the Boankra In-land Port Project – A comprehensive value chain assessment, very critical as this project when completed, will be pivotal in furtherance of our economic expansion to the north of Ghana and to other west African countries.
- To birth and nurture deliberate policies to build capacities of local construction firms. (One exciting occurrence is the award of the Motorway rehabilitation project to Maripoma Enterprise Limited, a local firm in 2024).
- Develop dynamic policies to sync with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) blueprint, taking full advantage of the existence of AfCFTA Headquarters in Ghana. Also, create a unit within the Ministry of Trade & Industry to be tasked to transition to achieve this objective.
- To comprehensively assess Ghana’s foreign policies regulating, monitoring and evaluating the madate of high commssioners and ambassadors performances/ expectations. Thus, results-based mandates must be linked to GDP growth in the quest to enhance foreign direct investments (FDI’s).
- A deliberate re-look at the railway sector development agenda in phases at a pace that convinces and gives hope. (Inner & intra-city transport enhancements, bearing in mind the Boankra In-Land Port project, very pivotal).
- In the medium to long term, initiate the reasons for establishing certain ministries, agencies and state-owned enterprises (SOE’s) for re-alignments and better productive outcomes.
- To re-tool Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (G.I.D.A) to comprehensively audit all irrigation facilities/schemes (Human resource and facilities approach) in re-defining how best G.I.D.A can sit within the confines of Ministry of Food and Agriculture (M.O.F.A).
- To decisively and comprehensively assess the One-District-One-Factory (1DIF) programme within the first two years to see how its full potential can be realised with very robust key performance indicators (KPI’s).
- To bring on board specialties/ experts/ civil society organisations (CSO’s) in the energy sector to develop continual and progressive policies to achieve a self-sufficient and self-sustainable energy sector with very minimal or no political interference (Energy sector transformation). It is very worrying to see the anomalies in our energy sector after becoming an oil producing country since 2010; thus, 15 years and counting.
- To re-define and establish the firm mandate of National Sports Authority (N.S.A) to fully take over the sports sector – coming out with a five to ten–year development plan, fully funded with result–oriented targets.
- To personally take up the challenge as the President, to re-ingnite the lost patriotic and nationalistic attitude of the Ghanaian (national orientation/mindset change).
- To take the lead as the President in re-orienting the mindset change of Ghanaians starting from the basic school curriculum and the need to deliberately build the capacities of the teaching profession across all level ( five to fifteen–year development plan).
- To re-align the decentralisation agenda to ensure dynamic and rapid development within the districts with the 1DIF agenda in mind to create jobs.
- To critically, as a matter of urgency, re-look at the mandate of the National Buffer Stock Company (N.A.F.C.O) established in 2010 by the National Buffer Stock Policy.
- To deliberately ensure the widening of the tax net to move from the about 5 million contributors and to increase the tax to GDP ratio from the existing 12.4 percent. (This has been the mantra for most governments within the 32 years of our democracy;and now in the 4th republic, yet nothing seems to work toward this goal). This becomes very worrying when I got to know that more than 80 percent of our revenue goes into emoluments and costs to debts as interest payments.
In conclusion, most at times, I shiver and become sad when I see where Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea have gotten to in terms of their economic and governance structures compared to how less than 40 percent of items sold in our shopping malls are produced locally. It is my belief that the afore-mentioned 20 pointers, to an extent, will push us as a country to our desired destination.
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of blessed memory should be the inspirational factor of this desired destination of our country Ghana, because his deeds and legacies are evident enough to tell us it is possible; though a very difficult and daunting hurdle.
I end to say a country becomes self-sufficient when there are real sustainable wages and salaries pivoted on an economy built on a solid industrial foundation.
Long live Ghana, Long live Mother Africa!
Yours Sincerely,
>>>the writer is a proud Ghanaian who believes in Pan Africanism and Building Africa by Africans for Africans. His experience spans across Civil Engineering, Marketing, Project and Supply Chain Management and Business Analysis.
