AGI Laments Over Gov’t’s Failure to Deepen Ghana’s Industrialisation with Flagship Policies

President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Dr. Humphrey Ayim Darke has observed that Ghana has missed a great opportunity to deepen the country’s industrialisation agenda through the flagship initiatives of the current government.

Dr. Ayim Darke says initiatives like the One Village One Dam, One District One Factory, School Feeding Program, and Free SHS were good opportunities for the country to address the value-chain and supply-chain challenges of the industrial sector.

Speaking at the 2^nd Quarterly Economic Roundtable at the University of Ghana on Monday, October 7, 2024, the industrialist explained that these flagship programmes should have been connected and linked to other initiatives to drive the industrial sector. However, per the current state of these initiatives, the President of AGI states that the government has failed to synchronize these programmes to address the broader and inherent supply and value chain challenges that have stunted the nation’s progress toward industrialization.

He likens this situation to how many Ghanaians who were interested in taking advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) failed to reap the benefits due to the challenges associated with the value and supply chains.

“The AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act), I could relate it to a number of interventions this existing government sought to deploy. One District One Factory was one exciting one, One Village One Dam, the School Feeding Project under the Free SHS, and all the way to the Obatanpa Project. If we had connected the dots carefully, we would have deepened the supply chain constraints that have been one of the difficulties of industrialisation in Ghana. The value chain would have also been created,” Dr. Ayim Darke noted

He added that “in the context of AGOA, a similar thing happened where we were not able to deepen the supply chain and also the auxiliary value chain for those who were interested.”

The President of AGI is therefore emphasizing that industrialization cannot be achieved through isolated projects or short-term interventions. The failure to connect the country’s flagship initiatives, he added, is not just a missed opportunity but a critical challenge that must be addressed if Ghana is to realize its potential as an industrial powerhouse.

Source:thehighstreetjournal.com