Top 3 ministers Akufo-Addo must sack with immediate effect
Bob Marley said, “in the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty”. If there’s one single country hat has disproved the long traded lies about the quality of the western system, then it’s China. We’ve been lied to that democracy is necessary for development but China grows aggressively in communism.
I have always said that unchecked and unfettered democracy is as dangerous as a crazy despotic regime. When under the guise of human rights, we throw away our sense of judgement, our culture, humanity and morality and in the name of a certain western-crafted human rights, we patronize abominations like the LGBTQI+, we become lost as Africans forever.
When we copy blindly and allow our kids to indulge in whatever they wish to do, we mould an uncertain future. We need a self-identity and indigenous drive to be independent culturally and technologically.
China banned Facebook and created Renren; blocked Whatsapp and created WeChat; nullified YouTube and established Youkou; terminated Twitter and built Sina Weibo; proscribed Amazon and nurtured homegrown Alibaba which eventually developed an IPO bigger than that of Amazon and ebay combined; challenged Apple with Huawei and many more.
Communist China has disputed almost everything that the whiteman claims to be the norm and has doggedly pursued her dreams. As Ghana grapples with development issues, incompetent ministers from major political parties like the NPP and NDC only look at attracting so-called foreign companies into the country. China has shown us that you only attract a sector that you are weak in and partner them to learn from them and eventually start and support your own.
This is of course why Elon Musk’s Tesla is pampered in China for now. But that will certainly not be long. But the story is different and pathetic in Ghana here.
The many ministers selected by Akufo-Addo can only hope to attract BMW when we have Kantanka; Amazon when tonaton could be supported and expanded; and twitter when even coding a microblogging platform is not rocket science.
factalive has named three incompetent ministers that must be sacked with immediate effect.
If you look at any country that benefits from industry like the so-called developed nations, the companies are native to that country. You cannot rely on a foreign company to industrialize your nation.
At a glance, there seems to be nothing wrong with seducing foreign tech giants to come into the country. While these may be short-term solutions, Ghana needs to start thinking about a long term stable solution to the issue of unemployment and industrialization which are directly related.
Politicians hardly think about the long term consequences of their actions if those actions will help keep them in power in the short term. Ghana just signed on as the fifth location in sub-sahara Africa for BMW to assemble its cars. Ghana joins South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda.
While this seems great, Ghana can only dream of being technologically independent in auto industry in the future if it starts now to work towards developing locally made cars like the Kantanka.
South Korean Automobile giants, Hyundai and Kia have also been pulled into the maze and they are bent on building assembly plants in the country soon. This is likely to stifle and kill local manufacturers like Kantanka whose cars are extremely costly at the moment and receive no help from government at the the same time.
In contrast, in the home countries of these companies, governments throw their weight beside them to ensure they thrive internationally.
South Korean Automobile giants, Hyundai and Kia are the latest to announce their intentions to set up assembling plants in the country by the end of next year 2022.
According to Hon. Alan Kyeremanten, the Minister for Trade and Industry, “by the end of 2022, the Ghana Automotive Development Program will lead to the establishment of four assembly plants; there will be some leading global auto manufacturing companies including Toyota-Suzuki, Nissan, Kia and Hyundai in addition to the current vehicle assembly operations of Kantanka Automobile Limited, Volkswagen and Sinotruck.”
The real question is whether Ghana really needs assembly plants of established companies or to consider having a developed local company?
Perhaps, a more productive program would be to have an established company like BMW, Hyundai or Kia partner a local company like Kantanka to help transfer of technology and help the local company learn and grow, not to bring one to directly compete with it.
“Jack will be based in Accra, so this will be his base while he visits the other countries on the continent and I am hoping that his friends would also follow him and see what he finds so special about Accra”
When the CEO of the American microblogging company, Twitter tweeted that “Twitter is now present on the continent. Thank you Ghana and Nana Akufo-Addo,” the minister of communications, Hon. Ursula Owusu Ekuful saw it as an opportunity to make noise about it. Politics!!!
Microblogging has become a very important tool of everyday life. And technology in particular has become the pride of nations. In China, WeChat controls the life of almost every citizen.
Every serious nation does not dream of courting foreign technology companies but studying them, copying, modifying and innovating using such inspiration. That’s how Japan outpaced the USA in the auto and electronics industry years ago.
Even though it doesn’t cost much to start or build a microblogging company like Twitter, a communications minister of Ghana would rather want a white company rather than influence and support local talents to build one.
As many nations around the world consider adding coding and programming as a basic ingredient to their education system, the NPP is only good at changing terminologies in the sector such as calling teachers facilitators and slashing down the duration of students’ stay in school.
I am not against attracting foreign companies and investment. But I am totally against relying exclusively on foreign companies even when we have local breeds that need attention and support. Ghana’s tonaton is one of the popular e-commerce platforms in the country. The company is nationally focused and has enjoyed some growth in the years past.
But seeing the world’s number one company in Ghana directly flexing its muscles at Tonaton will be counterproductive. Government would do a better work if it were to help Tonaton reach West Africa and subsequently Africa and the world.
The Minster of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has claimed that “the Ghana Investment Promotion Center is working assiduously to attract Amazon to Ghana”.
According to the Finance Minister, the move was necessary to deepen the technological, entrepreneurial ecosystem for Ghanaian entrepreneurs. Interestingly, this happens at a time that Government even has no established plan in creating and building an ecosystem for Ghanaian coders and programmers.
Amazon is a technology intensive company and will need more web and app developers, data scientists, system analysts, system administrators etc.
Ghana’s education system doesn’t place any emphasis on software development capabilities so Amazon will have no choice but to transfer developers from other countries into the nation. This will be costly for local industries like Tonaton which rely solely on local market.
#1: Finance Minister again! What he says this time is unbelievable.
How would you feel if your mum returned home from her friend’s house one day only to tell you that she now saw the need to give you some food and care. And explained to you that she saw that her friend had fed her kids well and that she now felt it was necessary to reciprocate that for you?
That’s how Finance Minister Ken Ofor-Atta felt after his 5-day hospitalization in the USA.
The minister shamelessly claimed that
“In my five weeks at the mayo clinic where they have three shields; faith, hope and sicence, I came to really undestand the nexus between finance and health, and the need for us as a country to be bold about our health infrastructure and ministry finding every way to be able to fund that, so we protect our citizens.“
Very unfortunate that he didn’t know that it was imperative on government to fund the health sector well so that the ordinary Ghanaian could enjoy a better health system. Very sad he didn’t realize this earlier before he was made minister. Anyway, it’s better late than never.
Mr. Ken-Ofori Atta had traveled to the United States for medical treatment after developing complications from the the contraction of covid-19.