A Ghanaian entrepreneur, Dr. Kofi Amoah has evolved an economic model dubbed, “Three Legged or Tripod Development Paradigm (TDP), which will help government to revamp Ghana’s economy.
Dr Amoah said he evolved the model after a careful study of the economic histories of Germany, United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK).
He added that he took into account strategies the countries put in place to develop agriculture, manufacturing, as well as financial policies in the past.
Dr. Kofi Amoah, who is popularly called ‘Citizen Kofi,’ disclosed this at the 4th Public Lecture series of the Regent University College of Science and Technology at Weija, Accra last Friday.
The public lecture was also held in commemoration of the university’s 10th Anniversary, which was under the theme “Industrialization of Ghana: The Way Forward”
The ideas and strategies adopted at the time which includes issuance of state subsidies in the form of land grants and tax rebates, cheap loans to entrepreneurs and protectionist high tariffs to curtail heavy importation and protect domestic markets are still very relevant for any developing country in Africa, he added.
“Much as these developed countries, now referred to as Group “A” countries, are dissimilar culturally, racially and geographically, there was common threads that run through the programmes and strategies that they used to move forward economically and socially,” he noted.
Ghana and other African countries spend huge sums of foreign currency ($1.5 billion a year) to import goods from the developed world whereas they could have achieved much and made very good savings.
“If Ghana or other nations in Africa do not take to these tried and tested strategies adopted by the developed world when they were building their economies several years ago, we shall continue to rely on them for their advice, money and wisdom to guide us,” he declared.
He stressed that the time has come for independent countries in Africa, including Ghana, to kick against dependency, borrowing and begging.
Dr. Amoah disclosed that Malaysia and Singapore that were at par with Ghana in the 1950s have surpassed Ghana in terms of development.
By Solomon Ofori