Retired diplomat K.B. Asante has warned that Ghana will continue to remain where it is economically unless it makes a shift from exporting raw materials to generating income by industrialising.
He said the age-old approach of exporting raw materials did not yield much return and, thus, Ghana needed to discontinue the colonial era practice of exporting its natural resources to other countries for revenue.
“We’ve been growing cocoa since the time of [Governor] Guggisberg. It helped us to build Korle-Bu [Teaching Hospital], Takoradi Harbour, Achimota [School], and so on. Now, what we have to do is to see to it that what we earn in this day and age can help us to do what we want to do, to build this country,” Mr Asante told Chief Jerry Forson on March 7, 2016 in a special Independence Day edition of Ghana Yensom, Accra100.5FM’s morning show.
He added: “If we continue just to export raw materials, then we shall be where we are because the prices of raw materials are dictated by those who buy. But if we process them a little, we can still export some materials. If we process them, we shall get more for our products.”
He also said Ghana could not remain an agricultural country for such reasons, arguing further that “even agricultural countries should be semi-industrialised”.
Mr Asante advised that the country should turn some of its agricultural products into processed goods, which could be sold, while having “a reasonable amount of industry”, and improving services and infrastructure.
“What we produce we should sell for the things we need to develop the country. It, therefore, means that those, who misuse our monies should be severely dealt with,” he demanded.
