Legal expert Dr. David Ofosu Dorte has raised concerns regarding the feasibility of a 24-hour economy amid the country’s ongoing challenges with electricity supply.
Speaking at the JoyNews and Amalgam of Professional Bodies Speakers Series on March 28 of this year, Dr. Dorte made various recommendations for economic transformation through three pivotal policies of the current administration.
During his presentation, he expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of adequate power to facilitate the materialization of a 24-hour economy.
He stated, “I will expect under the big push that an organization like VRA should be looking at 20 gigawatts. There are studies which show that for this country to industrialize, we need a base load of 20,000 megawatts.”
He also criticized some politicians for previously misinforming Ghanaians on the availability of power while imploring the government to harness natural resources to maximize other aspects of the economy.
“One of the statements that incensed me a lot was a statement that was constantly made by some politicians in the past that we have excess power. 6,000 megawatts of installed capacity cannot be excess power. Your inability to distribute the power does not make it excess power. A country cannot industrialize with 6,000 megawatts of power, period,” Dr. Dorte said.
He continued, “What is the next big agenda on the Akosombo Dam? And what is the next big agenda for VRA? And what is the next big agenda of the whole of the Akosombo itself, which has several angles that can be used, from transportation to a growth corridor to fluvial advantage to hauling of mining, including iron ore to jetties to a number of things, including even shipyards on the lake? You cannot deliver a 24-hour economy without power.”
Dr. Ofosu Dorte further stated that Ghana needs supply-oriented policies to encourage local producers, lamenting that the continuous importation of foreign goods that could be locally produced for government entities offers an avenue for corruption.
“We tend to prefer foreign goods. So, even the things we produce, we like to import them. It actually takes me back to the campaign which was conducted in the Akosombo regime, where there was a conscious effort to encourage consumption of made-in-Ghana goods, especially made-in-Ghana food produced in Ghana,” he explained.
He continued, “The last time where there was a discussion on inflation, I was following groups that contributed a significant part of our imports. Now, there are times that for the public sector, even when the thing is being produced here, importation is a procurement opportunity. And that procurement opportunity provides corruption for them to get some amount of money. As a result, they will nevertheless import, notwithstanding the fact that we will have saved the foreign exchange. So when we turn around and complain about the dollar-to-cedi exchange rate, we forget that the mindset that has contributed to it is a mindset that requires us to be corrupt by procuring from outside and by consuming things we otherwise produce here.”
Meanwhile, an economist at the University of Ghana Business School, Professor Bokpin, urged the government to develop high-quality road networks that connect economic hubs and enhance the transportation of goods to facilitate industrialization.
He explained, “Look, if you take Ghana since 1992 and you pick budget after budget and you see budgetary allocation to road stock, roads, it’s huge on paper. But out there, it’s not there. Come to think of it, just a couple of years ago, we heard in this country that the government had constructed more roads than any other government and all of that. But you go and check. If you look at the IMF’s road quality index, which they measure through mean speed score in the cities, Ghana is not in the top 10. Ghana is not in the top 20.We are not in the top 30. In fact, we rank somewhere around 36.”
“Our mean speed score is just around 56 kilometers per hour adjusted. So, approximately 45% of economic activity is movement. It’s the movement of goods, services, persons, and the rest of them. So, the basis for economic transformation, we don’t have it. Because in this country, we have not been able to connect our cities. You just can’t say, I’m going to Cape Coast and come back. That’s going to take you hours. So we don’t have the basis. Look, you have to live in Accra to work in Accra. I mean, it should be possible for somebody to live in Kumasi and come to work in Accra and go back either by rail or even by road,” he concluded.
