To think that as far back as 1963, Kwame Nkrumah established the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC). His aim: to harness the peaceful applications of atomic energy for national development, particularly in areas like medicine, agriculture, industry, and energy.
Note the year: 1963! A six-year-old African country!
Don’t talk to me about money. Kwame Nkrumah was not sitting on a pot of gold.
It was, and still is, about vision, about leadership, which is not fixated on family and friends, not leadership whose sole aim and priority is in how much of Ghana’s stolen money is stashed away in British, American and Swiss banks.
I have an example of two types of leaders.
One leader acquires hectares of land and builds a science village called Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) ― with extra land to spare for future expansion.
Another leader comes along. He sees this extra land and the first thing on his mind is to sell it to the Chinese to build a hotel!
One leader puts in place policies that grow entrepreneurs. Under him, businessmen and industrialists thrive.
I have in mind Edward Osei Boakye, whose Boakye Mattress produced made-in-Ghana Vono mattresses for schools and universities.
He put up the Cantonments Hospital, which later became the Police Hospital. I remember J. K. Siaw, builder of Tata Brewery (1969), the largest wholly African-owned brewery in West Africa, and Benjamin A. Mensah (B.A. Mensah), owner of International Tobacco Ghana Limited, among others.
Another leader comes along who, consumed by hatred for entrepreneurs, destroys all these industrialists on charges of corruption.
Allegations against these men were never proved; indeed, in 2005, for example, after 18 years, a court ordered the return of the property to B.A. Mensah.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I remind this country of Kwame Nkrumah’s Industrialisation Drive, which, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, produced vehicle tyres (Bonsa), nails, glass, television and radio sets, Wenchi Tomato Factory, GIHOC Fibre Products Company and Akosombo Textiles Limited.
The legacy is undeniable: Ghana’s later industrial base (cement, steel, energy, textiles) traces back to Nkrumah’s vision.
Delight
That is why, for me, it is prophetic, indeed a delight, to hear the Chief of Staff at the Presidency, Mr Julius Debrah, make statements to the effect that “No nation becomes truly prosperous by exporting raw materials and importing finished value.”
He was speaking at the opening of the 2026 Kwahu Business Forum on April 3.
His dream is to “shift Ghana’s economic strategy away from traditional production-based industries to a modern, diversified and manufacturing-centric economy.”
But it’s easier wished than done.
Every government, since 1966, has declared war to end the “Guggisberg economy”.
Words, words, words.
We are waiting to see a fulfilment of Julius Debrah’s promise of “incentives under a new Accelerated Export Drive Bill to encourage private investment in manufacturing and agro-processing”.
For a government that promised a 24-hour production policy, this bill should have been tabled in Mahama’s first year. But it is not too late.
The Debrah-Mahama relationship is admirable. If it must bear fruit for Ghana, the time is now.
My first question is: how many meetings have the Office of the Chief of Staff, the Ministry responsible for Industries, and the Association of Ghana Industries held with the CSIR?
Let me warn that no plans for industrialisation in Ghana can work without reference to research.
Second question: under NDC, what percentage of the country’s GDP goes to STI?
UNESCO data shows that Ghana’s research and development (R&D) expenditure was about 0.38 per cent of GDP in 2010, and it has remained below one per cent in subsequent years.
No point
There is no point in re-inventing the wheel. As far back as 2008, the Atta-Mills NDC government had taken steps to think through industrialisation.
After two Round Tables, the first in September 2008 and the second in November 2009, the Ministry of Trade and Industries (under Hannah Tetteh) engaged stakeholders in an attempt to craft Ghana’s industrial policy.
The policy was to address the problem of why “Ghana’s manufacturing sector has not responded well to the various economic and trade policy reforms pursued over the past decades.”
One challenge identified was the increased competition in the domestic and export markets and high production and distribution costs arising from high interest rates, aged and obsolete equipment, inefficient infrastructural services and low productivity.
A second challenge was the inadequate and costly supply of major local raw material supplies and the absence of local fabrication of plant and machinery.
A third challenge was how to ensure that agro-based industrial raw materials were produced locally in such quantities and quality at competitive prices for local manufacturing.
A fourth challenge was how to attract investments into the non-agro raw material sector and encourage extensive exploitation of mineral deposits such as limestone, kaolin, iron ore, clay, salt, aluminium sulphate, oil and natural gas.
The two Round Tables proposed solutions to all of the above. Civil Servants at the Ministry of Trade and Industries know where the answers are.
Julius Debrah and Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, long-standing friends from the Mahama era, have only to ask.
The writer is the Executive Director, Centre for Communication and Culture.
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