The son of Ghana’s first president, Doctor Onsy Kwame Nkrumah is unhappy with the pace of development in in the country since the overthrow of his father some decades ago.
He believes the West African country could have done better in terms of development if it had stayed on the path of industrialization as created by the country’s first president.
Ghanaian correspondent, Eunice Agyare-Okyere reports that Ghana’s economy was built on infrastructure and industry. The first president’s vision of making Ghana self-reliant through industry was truncated when he was overthrown in 1966. Years down the line some of the industries were sold while other remain dysfunctional.
A notable characteristic of Ghana’s economy since independence has been the generally declining per capita GDP. With a fast increasing population, the growth of GDP has not been enough to meet the needs of the population.
Ghana is sometimes compared with Singapore in terms of development because both countries, after being colonized by the British, gained independence around the same time. Singapore which was predicted to be extinct by 1980, as at 2016, had a GDP 2000 percent higher than that of Ghana.
Singapore’s GDP per capita stood at 85000 dollars, the 3rd in the world while that of Ghana stood at 4000 dollars, the 139th in the world.
The son of Ghana’s first president, Dr. Onsy Kwame Nkrumah believes multi-party democracy in Ghana takes part of the blame for Ghana’s development challenges.
According to Ghana’s 2017 budget statement the new government projects an overall GDP growth rate of 6.3 percent, non-oil GDP growth rate of 4.6 percent and an end-year inflation rate of 11.2 percent from the current 13.3 percent.
Are these figures enough to return Ghana to its former prosperous state, Dr. Onsy Nkrumah thinks it will take more to get there.
