By: Bernard BEMPONG
Ghana’s Vice President, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, recently expressed concerns over the U.S. government’s decision to cut aid funding, leaving a $156 million gap. However, her diplomatic approach was ignored.
It is time for Ghana to drop the polite rhetoric and face reality – this is not a crisis, but an opportunity. Aid-dependent countries like Ghana should not be seen as beggars, but rather as suppliers of essential resources like oil, gold, and cocoa.
The global economy relies on these vital resources. In the world of Trump’s America, nothing is free – everything is a deal. Ghana must learn to negotiate and show its advantage, just as Ukraine and Israel have done.
Thus, it is time for Ghana to stop playing the grateful aid recipient and start asserting its power. When the aid faucet shuts off, it is not time to panic – it is time to play your cards. In Trump’s world, it is not about barking, but biting.
This is a world where ‘The Art of the Deal’ is treated like scripture. Ghana must adapt to this reality, where strength is currency and whining about fairness gets you nowhere.
Instead of protest letters, Ghana should come up with hard-nosed proposals with her major export data. Indeed, every barrel of oil, ounce of gold, and acre of cocoa should be her bargaining chip.
To get Trump’s attention, Ghana must show up with a project he wants and be willing to make a deal. Ukraine did not just complain about Russia; they built strategic alliances and got billions in military aid.
Ghana should take a page from Ukraine’s book and propose joint ventures in energy, tech parks, and Artificial Intelligent (AI) hubs. It is time for Ghana to negotiate like a major shareholder, not consider herself a supplicant.
To succeed in Trump’s transactional world, Ghana must ask itself three key questions:
- What does America want? Rare earths, military cooperation, or trade routes?
- What can Ghana offer with confidence? Ghana has valuable resources like gold, cocoa, oil, and bauxite.
- How can Ghana ensure every deal benefits the country? Ghana must stop relying on aid and start negotiating like a partner, not a recipient.
Huawei’s experience
Ghana can learn from Huawei’s experience. When Trump banned Huawei from using Google services, the company built its own operating system, HarmonyOS. Huawei’s ecosystem spans smartphones, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and smart cities.
Today, Huawei is a self-reliant powerhouse. Ghana has its own “Huawei moment” now. With aid cuts, Ghana must pivot and start behaving like a co-owner of the global economy. This is the time for the country to delete what I describe as “Donor Dependency 1.0” and install “Sovereign Strategy OS.” This is indeed the era of strategic alignment.
Here are some strategies:
- Cut off from the West: Build East. Diversify trade partners and investments.
- Dependent on raw exports: Move up the value chain. Process and manufacture goods domestically.
- Waiting for Aid: Create sovereign funds. Invest in strategic sectors and projects.
Trump unintentionally handed developing countries the greatest gift: a reason to stop waiting. The foreign aid cancellation by the Trump administration should be considered as a forced exit from the comfort zone of handouts.
Now, imagine the headlines: “Ghana launches its own Pan-African Cocoa Exchange.” “Accra unveils ‘PONE Index’ to track resource fairness in global trade.” “Ghana announces Sovereign Deal Advisory Council led by economists and certified accountants, not expats.”
Ghana must brand itself as “the partner with leverage,” not just a recipient with good governance. It is time to get tough, get smart, and be paid. In today’s global marketplace, sentimental speeches about “shared destiny” and “our friends in Washington” will not cut it. What matters is money, data, and advantage. America respects strength, not pity politics.
To get results, Ghana needs to send a negotiation team with experts in forensic accounting, economics, data analysis, Artificial Intelligence (AI), trade law, and more. It is time to stop relying on sentimental speeches and start using hard data and advantage to get what Ghana deserves.
Here is an action plan:
- Profit Repatriation Reform: Decision-makers must ensure American firms operating in Ghana repatriate profits fairly and reinvest meaningfully.
- Renegotiate Oil & Mineral Contracts: There is an urgent need to revise or renegotiate contracts in the extractive sector to reflect 21st-century revenue sharing.
- State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Partnerships: Offer U.S. firms a role in transforming Ghana’s state-owned enterprises, with accountability, local hiring, and knowledge transfer.
- Value-Added Trade: Export value-added products, like gourmet chocolate bars, instead of raw materials.
PONE: Pay our nations equitably—Time to strike a deal
Let the Trump legacy live on—not as a warning—but as a challenge to get tough, get smart, and be paid. It is time to stop calling it aid cancellation—it is revenue recovery. It is the invoice that got “lost in the system” for the last 60 years.
This an opportune time to welcome to PONE: Pay Our Nations equitably- a new global operating system for formerly aid-dependent countries who have finally read the fine print on the so-called “development partnerships.” This is not about begging.
It is about billing. Ghana must stop playing the charity case and start being a competitor. It is time to charge tolls, not burn bridges. In Trump’s world, every nation is a negotiator, and every asset is a bargaining chip.
Final words
Ghana must approach global summits with confidence, armed with a balance sheet and a bold pitch. It is time to stop lamenting the end of aid and start negotiating for equity. In that regard, it is important to strike a deal of mutual benefit, which is the language the Trump administration understands.
BERNARD BEMPONG
Bernard is a Chartered Accountant with over 14 years of professional and industry experience in Financial Services Sector and Management Consultancy. He is the Managing Partner of J.S Morlu (Ghana) an international consulting firm providing Accounting, Tax, Auditing and Business Advisory Services to both private businesses and government. He leads IT Innovations like www.recksoft.com, an AI-powered reconciliation tool that processes millions of transactions in seconds, and www.finovatepro.com,an upcoming financial platform for SMEs.
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