The country Ghana must be thankful to the leader of the Movement for Change, Hon.Alan Kyerematen for gradually turning the political landscape from insults to contest of ideas by way of policies.
On the 10th of January,2023,the leader of the movement for change in his broadcast to the nation, read out his plans he had for the nation which plans he themed it the “Great Transformational Plan”. In the said broadcast, he was of the view that the country’s political landscape should be moved from the usual noise to contest of ideas and vision out of which this country could be developed faster than we all are currently experiencing.
It is important to note at this stage that two out of every three people you meet on the street identifies unemployment their number one problem that they want dealt with.In fact they are yearning for decent jobs to let them live a decent life.
The Great Transformational Plan that he penned down as the Plan capable of dealing with the myriad of problems faced by the country was premised on a number of strategies that when implemented well will see a monumental transformation in this country.
Mr Kyerematen was of the view that Ghana as a country had visited the IMF seventeen times and that there must be something that the country was not doing right hence always going back to the institution to be bailed out.
In his view, given the opportunity,the following strategies would be implemented to transform the country.
Firstly, he believes that a strong macroeconomic environment was a necessary evil to deal with the problems facing the country. A strong macroeconomic environment tackles the fundamentals of the economy ie dealing with high inflation,targeting high public expenditure,growing our external reserves,low interest rate, reduced taxes etc. It is trite knowledge that without low interest rate,low inflation, stable currency, strong external reserves etc in any country, no business can succeed. What these factors enumerated does is that it allows the private sector which is the engine of growth and the pillar around which Alan’s plan evolves thrives. A low interest rate for instance allows businesses to access credit facilities to engage in production.
Engaging in production means employing working hands and if there is demand for the produce high as such, one does not need an investment advisor to advise that the business must engage in production in 24-hour basis to meet demand.
The idea of a strong macroeconomic environment is not in vacuum. His vision of having a huge access to the Africa Market came to fruition with the establishment of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area. The establishment of the Afcfta readily provides access to Ghanaian businesses to a market worth 3 trillion.
Businesses in this country can only take advantage of this market when our local situation has low interest rate available to businesses as well as a stable currency and low taxes and low inflation.It is just not right that Ghanaian businesses will now be paying close to 40% as interest rate whiles our neighboring countries such as the Ivory Coast (5.25%), Burkina Faso (5.25%),Togo(5.25%), Nigeria (18.75%), South Africa (8.25%), Egypt (19.25%), Kenya (10.5%) etc
These countries are all going to produce to take advantage of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area. Our interest rate alone will out price our produce in the market hence making demand for it very low. It is therefore important that any leader that intends to deal with our problem of Unemployment must therefore ensure that the macroeconomic environment is very strong.Once our macroeconomic environment is strong, businesses in this country will be producing at competitive prices which will lead to increased demand for our goods and therefore increased employment culminating in your 24hours economy.
Alan also talks about investing heftly in Agriculture. In fact he intends to revolutionize the agriculture sector.Once again understanding the question as a student in any examination is part of the solution.
Unemployment is a major problem in our country. As a country you are better-off concerntrating in sectors that you have comparative advantage. Ghana has a youthful population and a very vast agricultural resources that could be harnessed.In fact the UN estimates that by 2050, the population of Africa will increase to 2.4billion.This means that no government can have a strategy worth a sort to deal with unemployment without looking at agriculture.
Agriculture has a huge supply chain that engages a lot of hands and is the surest way of providing employment to millions.As Africans,we have been relying on the western world to provide our food needs.Remember a war between Russia and Ukraine alone,we are told,was responsible for the high cost of grains in Ghana and the rest of the world.
Unfortunately for Ghana and for that matter Africa, we cannot continue to rely on the western world in the immediate future because these western countries themselves are having problems with aging population. The population that are involved in agriculture in the western world are very old and sooner than later will not be around and this situation is further exacerbated by the kow birth policy in these countries.
This makes replacement of these farmers a difficult task.If they have fed us as Africans all these years whiles young, it is time for Africa to also feed the western world because if for nothing at all, we in Ghana and for that matter Africa have a youthful population and rich agricultural resources. What it means is that by investing heavily in agriculture in Ghana as Alan is proposing, the demand will be there for our produce. Once there is that demand, then there will be the need to have people work for 24hours.
A coordinated policy is what has sustained every country that has developed.One cannot invest in agriculture and export produce in its raw form.There is the need for industries to be established that will process the raw materials from agriculture into semi finished and finished goods that has high value.
For instance it is just mind blowing that Ghana having engaged in cocoa business for all these while still process less within the country and even with that it takes place at the free zones where the country does not make more revenue out of it.Cocoa industry across the globe is worth close to $150b yet Ghana and Ivory Coast that supplies close to 1/3 of the beans hardly makes more than $6billion from this cash crop just because we export the beans in its raw form. Adding Industrialisation to agriculture maximizes the revenue output and that is what Alan proposes.This assures a 24-hour economy.
The idea of working 24hours means providing security and also improving the training of security personnel in becoming more and more professionals.Alan knowing it takes coordinated programs to achieve great transformation also proposes an investment in our security architecture.Investing in the security agencies produces a professional security force which assures conducive business environment that allows a 24-hour economy to thrive.
One will also need an Infrastructure to support a 24-hour economy.You cannot implement an efficient 24-hour economy when your roads are bad,energy needs are low,educational,health etc infrastructure are in bad state etc.Under the Great Transformational Plan by Alan,the Private Sector will partner with the Public sector to provide the much needed infrastructure.This is what is done in any advanced country. No developed country waits for taxes to be collected before roads are constructed but rather it partners with the private sector to get it done and tolled for repayment.
Having developed your infrastructure,provided maximum security, created employment and so on and so forth, the country then becomes the toast of the world and then tourists will then come in their numbers.You do not want to frustrate tourists coming into the country and so immediately Alan proposes free visas and visa on arrival just to make coming to Ghana,more friendly. I have seen the Kenyan government quickly implement this policy of Alan and the current administration also trying to align by implementing a visa on arrival this Christmas. It must not end only this Christmas but must be all year round.People in temperate regions would want to travel to tropical areas during winter and so you do not make acquisition of visa a scarce commodity but rather flexible.
Singapore has visa on arrival and so attracts more visitors throughout the year.It explains why the Changi Airport is so busy and rakes in more revenue to the State for efficient running of their economy.Ghana can easily do same.
The above coupled with a number of policy initiatives are what the next leader of the country proposes to implement to end the sufferings of the ordinary Ghanaian.Remember God did not put us in this country to suffer but is the work of human beings who are refusing to think deep into our situation that is messing humanity up.
So in conclusion, the 24-hour economy being proposed by the NDC has already been succinctly stated by Alan in his Great Transformational Plan and that the end product of the GTP is an economy that is working 24-hours. What this means is that the NDC and its leadership must as a matter of urgency join the Movement for Change in bringing the Transformation that the country needs from 2025. The blue print has already been provided by Alan and they are better off joining the originator of the idea.Alan’s credibility,character and competence makes his policies or plan more credible than any of the Presidential aspirants and so it will only be a mark of patriotism when the other candidates whose credibility, character and competence are questionable join forces with Alan to lead the development agenda of the country.
If Lee Kuan Yew did it for Singapore, Alan surely will do it for Ghana.