The Principal of the Jackson College of Education, Mrs. Theodosia Jackson has stressed the need for country to resort to industrialization as a recipe for the proper development of Ghana as a nation.
According to her, the “one district, one factory” policy by the government should be strengthened and given a further push to ensure that each district can boast of not less than ten thriving factories.
This move, she said, would give meaning to the Ghana Beyond Aid policy by the president and make Ghana self-sufficient.
Ghana must learn a great lesson from the devastating impact that the Covid-19 is having on world economies and build a robust economy that hinges on industrialization”, Mrs. Jackson suggested in an interview with the media.
The educationist said dying local industries need to be revived through a robust agricultural sector to propel the industrialization drive to bail us out in case of eventual global economic down turn.
Mrs. Jackson further asked that Ghana takes steps to promote and increase its export to develop as a nation to save the current generation from blame by the unborn generation, stressing that it is time to depart from over dependence on aid and importation of almost every commodity.
The recommendations of the Principal of the Jackson College of Education were premised on the fact that Ghana cannot depend on the USA and UK for foreign support.
Mrs. Jackson said Ghana must cut down on her imports and grow local industries to shoulder the country’s economy by utilizing the various natural resources the country is endowed with to boost exports and the economy.
According to her, Ghana has vast fallow lands such that Israel could feed the world if she (Israel) accessed a tenth of our landmass, yet Ghana imports common toothpicks though bamboo abounds in Ghana.
The Principal of the College furthermore appealed to traditional rulers to release lands for the cultivation of local rice so that we could stop the importation of rice and to ensure food security.
“We need plantation farms to foster more exports as other countries do in exporting pepper and flowers”, she suggested.
Mrs Jackson said Ghana’s over reliance on China for everything must be curtailed. She bemoaned the situation where local manufacturing companies are not adequately patronized by citizens. She said as a country we ought to learn a great lesson from the COVID 19 pandemic to start admiring made in Ghana goods since that is the surest way to safeguard our economy.
“COVID 19 is telling us to be economically viable by appreciating goods made in our country.”
She is of the firm belief that given the concomitant effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world economy, it is anticipated that hardly will any donor nation dole out aids to Ghanaians or any other developing nation.
In this light, she advised that the nation takes pragmatic and proactive measures to embark on aggressive industrialization to produce goods that are consumed by our compatriots locally but are imported from abroad.
She wondered why Ghanaians patronize Chinese restaurants when they could set up Ghanaian restaurants to boost local cuisines.
Mrs. Jackson has, therefore, urged the government to empower the private sector and further advised Ghanaians to patronize made-in-Ghana products to boost the economy.
Source: 3news.com | Ghana