<\/p>\n
\n Accra, March 07, GNA – Economic experts say Ghana has failed to achieve the \u201ceconomic independence\u201d that forbearers of the country envisioned when the country gained self-rule from its colonial master 65 years ago.<\/p>\n
They said though the 1966, 1972, 1979, and 1981 coups had impacted negatively on the efforts in achieving economic independence, not much had been done by various Government\u2019s to totally wean the country off the West. <\/p>\n
On the day of Ghana\u2019s Independence (March 6, 1957), the President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, was optimistic that the country, and for that matter Africa, was on the path to charting a new path and managing its economy for the well-being of its people. <\/p>\n
He, therefore, profoundly proclaimed these words: \u201cAt long last, the battle has ended! And thus Ghana, your beloved country is free forever.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added that: \u201c\u2026And as I pointed out… I made it quite clear that from now on – today – we must change our attitudes, our minds, we must realise that from now on, we are no more a colonial but a free and independent people.\u201d <\/p>\n
This \u201cfree and independent people,\u201d was to reflect particularly in Ghana, not only in political manifestation through self-governance, but also, through economic independence. <\/p>\n
But some experts said 65 years on, that economic independence had not been achieved. <\/p>\n
Professor Godfred Alufar\u202fBokpin, an Economist with the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), said: \u201cOur forefathers who fought for us, if they were to be around today, they would not be happy because it wasn\u2019t only for self-rule but a total liberation of the country and the continent but that hasn\u2019t happened.\u201d <\/p>\n
Prof Bokpin stated that: \u201cIn terms of economic liberation or independence we\u2019ve failed, and there are indicators that beyond one\u2019s political ideology you can look at and say that our economy is very much dependent on them (the West).\u201d <\/p>\n
He emphasised that: \u201cIf you look at the number of times that the cedi has depreciated as a result of economic mismanagement, corruption, ballooned public debt, slam in commodity prices reflecting structural bottlenecks, it doesn\u2019t tell you that we\u2019ve gained economic independence.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Economist noted that though coups had derailed progress, the current economic situation: \u201cIs an indictment on our resolve to have self-rule and determine the future destiny if our own country.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said there was the urgent need: \u201cTo end the elite capture, unnecessary tribalism and ethnicity, and love each other to want to have the best for each other in this country.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added that: \u201cWe need honesty and integrity. More of education is fine but more of integrity and honesty to the extent that we\u2019ll shun corruption and deal with corruption aggressively with the same shame it appears.\u201d <\/p>\n
Prof Peter Quartey, the Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) noted that Ghana had not been able to achieve the anticipated economic independence associated with the self-rule. <\/p>\n
He said the country had seen some improvement, particularly in communication and road infrastructure, poverty reduction and other areas, but added that: \u201cUnfortunately, we\u2019ve not been able to be economically independent.\u201d <\/p>\n
Going forward, he said: \u201cWe have to look inward and raise more domestic revenue through direct taxes. I\u2019m not asking for an increase in taxes; the existing ones we should be able to collect them, like property rate.\u201d <\/p>\n
Prof Quartey also asked the Government to ensure that various State-Owned Enterprises were profitable and contributed to the national revenue. <\/p>\n
Additionally, he called for a move from the economy being agrarian [move from a predominantly peasant farming concept] to supporting and investing in large scale commercial farming. <\/p>\n
He said, \u201cWe should invest not only in production but in all the value chain, so that we can even be processing to add more value. We should be storing and processing so that food prices can be stable, and less dependent on imported food.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ghana, formerly, Gold Coast, gained independence from British colonial rule on March 6, 1957, becoming the first sub-Saharan Africa country to do so. <\/p>\n
March 6, was declared Independence Day, a national holiday celebrated yearly in honour, and to celebrate the heroes of Ghana who led the country to attain its freedom. <\/p>\n
GNA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Accra, March 07, GNA – Economic experts say Ghana has failed to achieve the \u201ceconomic independence\u201d that forbearers of the country envisioned when the country gained self-rule from its colonial master 65 years ago. They said though the 1966, 1972, 1979, and 1981 coups had impacted negatively on the efforts in achieving economic independence, not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1013289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[3010,1684,250,4077,5726,1151],"class_list":["post-1013288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-economic","tag-failure","tag-ghanas","tag-independence","tag-onexperts","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1013288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1013288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1013288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1013288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}