Last week, the President commissioned a $30 million pharmaceutical factory, under the One-District-One-Factory (1D1F) initiative, at Ningo-Prampram, in the Greater Accra Region.
The project is in line with government’s agenda and effort to make the country economically independent, by creating more jobs and improving lives and livelihoods.
The Atlantic Lifesciences Limited is one of several factories, under the 1D1F initiatives, dotting our districts as signposts of government’s commitment to accelerating our country’s growth and development.
As confirmed in the recent report about Ghana’s record GDP growth, it is only healthy management of the economy, through vibrant productivity, that holds the key to our future as an independent, resilient economy.
Pioneer
Ghana’s traditional role as a model of an industrialised economy in the sub-region is over half a century old, and spans all the four Republics, though we failed in sustaining that position owing to political interference, particularly in state-run enterprises, and poor monitoring of the private sector not only in terms of policy support but also tax compliance.
The spread of industrial enclaves across Tema, Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi tells a vivid story about local pioneers who partnered British and Middle East as well as Indian merchants and industrialists to create jobs.
We may recall the Siaws, the Darkos (Mechanical Lloyd), the Modern Builders and the BK Yemos. We can additionally cite the Appentengs and Safo-Adus as well as their female counterparts on our Asafo and Makola markets of yesteryears. And we can safely indicate that joblessness was not a worry for any serious Ghanaian at a time the youth from Togo, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, among others, found opportunities to come down and serve in our Armed Forces and Police Service and local government sector.
Vacation jobs were available for secondary school kids, as were construction jobs in Tema and along the Cantonments stretch of Accra, aside other emerging residential areas across the country.
Decline
By the late 70s, our capacity to deliver jobs was fading fast as one military junta after another showed how inept they were by running down state enterprises and taking their excesses into the private sector.
The worst was when we had to trade off state enterprises for our books to look decent to be accepted as a beneficiary of global economic support.
That was when we had the Divestiture Implementation Committee with a mandate to sell almost all non-performing state assets for a pittance.
That was not only the beginning of large global businesses like the UACs exiting elsewhere, but also local entrepreneurs being forced into exile in a fit of forced tax compliance during the Armed Forces Revolutionary era.
Reconstruction
After crying over spilt milk over the years, all we have to do at this point is to bite the bullet and industrialise, however modestly we can run in catching up with Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria.
That is why every little effort at creating jobs should be appreciated because the responsibility is a collective one. Only a few days ago, a former Minister of Trade and Industry in the National Democratic Congress administration diplomatically admitted this when he said the NDC must begin to demonstrate that it is not anti-business.
It is sad that when the NDC and its communicators find themselves reacting to the incumbent government’s job creation effort, they fail to appreciate that industrialisation is a journey, with strategic steps that begin from home and with a clear programme to redevelop our own entrepreneurs all over again.
National appeal
We at the Daily Statesman commend the President for his commitment to the industrialisation agenda, which will obviously create more jobs and add to our development effort. At the same time, we would also urge all the political parties, particularly the opposition NDC, not only to appreciate what goes into these efforts, but also help government promote industrialisation as a key priority.
That will sound better than pointing out imagined weaknesses in implementation or numbers being taken care of in terms of access to jobs.
It is a collective responsibility that we all face as a nation that must provide jobs for citizens. That is why we must encourage ourselves, however modest the effort is.
