President Akufo-Addo (inset) speaking to a section of the gathering at the London Business School
President Akufo-Addo has indicated that his government is going to use oil revenues to transform the country’s economy.
According to him, as a relatively new entrant in the league of oil-producing countries, Ghana is not going to treat its oil like it has done with gold – exported in its raw material form.
Ghana’s oil, President Akufo-Addo explained, presents the country with the perfect opportunity to transform the structure of its economy through industrialization and value-added commercial activities.
“Our oilfields provide us with the perfect opportunity to create a petrochemical industry in Ghana. We have begun the processes leading to the setting up of a gas feedstock industrial estate in the Western Region of the country,” he said.
The president indicated further, “We intend to convert our petrochemicals into hundreds of industrial and consumer products in Ghana, including plastics, paints, rubber, fertilizers, detergents, dyes, textiles, solvents and, hopefully, bitumen for road construction.”
President Akufo-Addo was convinced that from petroleum the country can get the preservatives to can food produced in Ghana, with the synthetic by-product from petroleum serving as raw material for the manufacturing of different types of garment and footwear.
He stated these on Saturday, when he delivered a speech at the London Business School’s Africa Summit, on the theme, “Scaling for Impact – the Important role of Industrialisation.”
In his remarks, President Akufo-Addo noted that unless Ghana industrialises with the goal of adding value to her primary products, the country cannot create the necessary number of good-paying jobs that will enhance the living standards of the mass of the Ghanaian people.
“Raw material producing economies do not create prosperity for the masses. The way to that goal – the goal of ensuring access to prosperity – is value addition activities in a transformed and diversified modern economy, with a modernised agriculture – in other words, the industrial development of our economy, which takes on board the aid of digital technology,” he added.
Importance Of Education
Industrialization, the president observed, can only be successful with a workforce that is equipped and skilled and can compete effectively on the global market.
“Any country that aims to transform itself into a modern productive player in the global marketplace must get its educational policies right,” he emphasised, adding that the countries that have made rapid progress around the world put education at the heart of their development.
“Indeed, other nations, who began their lives as independent states at the same time as we did, like Singapore, Malaysia and Korea, have emulated a similar model, and have also achieved great economic success. In fact, in their case, they followed Japan’s excellent example,” he said.
With the implementation of the Free Senior High School policy in September 2017, President Akufo-Addo told the participants that 90,000 more students gained access into senior high schools in 2017 than they did in 2016.
“We are of the firm conviction also, that we shall be able to transform Ghana’s economy and reduce unemployment when we pay attention to technical and vocational training. That is where the skills needed for the modern economy can be developed,” the president added.