By Prof Frederick Doe
In the wake of the renewed wave of xenophobic attacks on African migrants in South Africa early this year, many African governments were brought to the point of repatriating their nationals in alacrity to forestall possible loss of lives. Whiles the efforts of the government of H.E John Mahama and his able foreign minister and South African Ambassador deserve commendation, it is nevertheless important to tackle the root cause of the problem holistically and sustainably.
Besides and beyond such reasons such as spousal/family re-unions, tourism, education and medical care, the key push factors that instigate migration are desire for better economic opportunities and enhanced futures. As such, the government of Ghana needs to go beyond the temporary solution of ‘settling returnees’ with resettlement capital. The proportion of Ghanaians still living abroad and even in South Africa far outnumbers those who were repatriated and those still seeking to migrate off the shores of Ghana are even more numerous than those living abroad or seeking to return. Hence the issue of migration with its attendant loss of manpower and much-need skilled labour will continue unless the government deploys a sustainable approach to job creation and attenuation of migration (“fixing the country”).
An initial casual analysis of the skill sets of those who voluntarily repatriated reveal that majority of the repatriates were people with informal skills and vocational skills. These include hairdressers, barbers, cosmeticians. Others are drivers, dress makers etc. Whiles there may be others who were blue-colour workers and professionals, the media interviews did not identify such a category of people. The questions that therefore beg for answers are:
- Why didn’t or couldn’t such people stay in the comfort of their home country where they have family, friends and peace and practice their trade and professions?
- Secondly, were the economic prospects in South Africa and by extension other nations, so much better as to compel them to expose themselves to the harsh weather conditions, danger and other difficult living conditions in those countries?
So, if there was no change in their vocations or professions, then it only implies that these vocations and professions could have been practiced in Ghana if the right economic conditions were created for them to stay. This applies to those who are seeking to migrate as well as those who have no intentions to leave their home country.
It is proverbially alleged that, the grass is always greener on the other side. Consequently, the lure to embark on migration, especially economic migration, will never cease. However, it can be mitigated significantly if the government of Ghana in collaboration with the private sector stakeholders would deploy some strategies to stem the tide. Whiles admittedly the government cannot shoulder the responsibility of creating jobs for the entire population, it is in a position to create the enabling economic and social environments for job creation in general.
Here are some key areas that pragmatic steps can be taken to ensure sustainable job creation and thereon to mitigate migration:
A. Increased and sustained focus on domestic production and consumption of goods and services:
1. Agricultural Produce: Until recently, many Ghanaians were mentally programmed to think that it was uncool to eat local foods. The early educated class of Ghanaian citizenry (from 1970 to as late as the early 2000s) were schooled to think eating local foods was not classy. This was amplified by television drama and folk music. A typical example was the song ‘Yede Nam Pa Aba’ by the 4th Dimension Dance Band which degraded chewing of kɔtɔ (crab) as not fit for akrakyifuo (the educated). Hence the abandon of local foods in favour of foreign (tinned fish, milo, semolina, cornflakes etc.). All these came at the expense of local foods and dairy products. Subsequently, farmers were demotivated and young school leavers and graduates expunged any ideas of careering in agriculture out of their heads.
The late General Kutu Acheampong tried to correct this with his government’s ‘operation Feed Yourself” programme but was not successful. The government of the late Lt J.J Rawlings attempted to revamp this programme but did not sustain the momentum.
Though, gradually the love for local dishes is increasingly returning to Ghanaians thanks partly to social media influence and partly due to worsening cost and composition of foreign dishes. Even the choice of drinks and beverages at weddings, funerals and other social events has shifted from the likes of Coca Cola, Fanta etc. to local options such as ‘asana’, ‘sobolo’, etc. In spite of this shift, the passion for careers in agriculture has not fully taken hold on Ghanaians yet. The yearly farmers’ day celebrations with its attendant award of prizes have not done much to lure the youth back into agriculture.
There is therefore a strong need to return to domestication of agricultural products (production and consumption)
A return to our own local foods will have tremendous positive impact not only on our foreign exchange reserves, but also on the production of local fishery and other agricultural products thus boosting investment in agriculture and increase in jobs through increased farming activities. Healthwise, life expectancy will be enhanced through consumption of healthier food options (i.e. non-GM foods) and government expenditure in the area of healthcare will further be reduced as citizens become healthier thus freeing the already scarce national resources for deployment in other areas such as education and technology.
In order to return this country to domestication of production and consumption, I suggest 6 key strategies:
i. Reduce import of imported food especially staples (rice and corn) as well as fruits by 30-45% yearly on an incremental basis while at the same time encouraging the production of locally produced corn and rice and an increased consumption of foods such as tubers and local vegetables. In its place, let’s support the production and consumption of local rice. The rice fields of Afram plains and the Northern regions are there to supply to the nation. The government of Ghana needs to muster the political will to deploy this strategy with its generational benefits in mind.
A successful deployment of this strategy through policy and tariffs will encourage more production as well as youth engagement in agriculture as it will shore up the lucrativeness of employment in agriculture.
ii. State-funded institutions such as schools, prisons etc. must procure only from local farmers to encourage production.
iii. The government should embark on the massive installation of either state-owned or community or group-owned silos across the country to prevent spoilage of agricultural produce and create an effective food buffer system to prevent resort to importation.
iv. Government should Intervene in the pricing market of agricultural produce just like in the rent control system so as to 1. help farmers get fair rewards for their labour 2. Prevent exploitation of the consumer.
v. Incentives should be provided to farmers by way of soft loans, assistance with farm inputs (fertilizers, machinery etc.).
vi. There should be further regulation on rental costs on farmlands to enable young ‘agropreneurs’ to engage in agriculture.
2. Strengthen the Clothing and Textile Industry through increased domestic consumption
Just like the case of agricultural products, we abandoned the patronage and use of local textile and clothing in favour of foreign produced clothing. This led to the collapse of the textile industry with many textile manufacturing companies running down resulting in the loss of jobs. India has a reputation as an economic giant in Asia. One of their principal strengths is the heavy use of their indigenous costumes. Same applies to China and other Asia countries. The same cannot be said about Ghana. Over the years, several attempts have been made to resurrect the industry but very little progress has been made. The J.A Kuffour administration graciously introduced the Friday wear programme but this was not backed by law and it was therefore not effective in resurrecting the textile industry (that is if that was the purpose of that initiative to begin with).
If this initiative can be re-instated and given the requisite legal and policy backing, it will result in creating jobs in 3 main areas:
- The textile industry will boom as the demand for local textiles will shoot up, thus resulting in increased employment for all categories of skilled and unskilled labour (factory hands, sales and marketing professionals, advertising firms, accountants, technicians etc.)
- The retail sector will also flourish with many entrepreneurs joining the supply-chain.
- The fashion industry (in general) will boom with increase in demand for clothing made from local textile (tailors, seamstresses, accessory makers etc.)
This is where the 24-hour economy policy will be more applicable.
To achieve the above:
- There should be a massive control of imports of textile and clothing through tariffs
- State-funded institutions should be compelled by law to procure and use ONLY locally manufactured fabric and clothing (.i.e. schools, hospitals, prisons etc.)
- The ‘Friday’ wear initiative should be extended to at least 3 days. That is, it should be enforced from say Monday to Wednesday at least to grow demand for local fabrics. Afterall, why have we abandoned our own culturally-defined dressing for the westernized fashion of suits and stuff in this hot climate of ours.? Who has enslaved us to think only that which comes from Europe and America (which were primarily designed for their climate) is good.?
B. Increased focus on the Small and Medium Enterprise Sector
It is a given that no country can develop without the development of the small and medium enterprise sector. The SME sector is known to be accountable for the creation of about 85% of employment in most economies and are the engine of growth. Even the Large Enterprises depend on the support of the smaller players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem to stay alive. SMEs play a crucial role in the supply-chain and are thus indispensable for the survival of the bigger firms.
Whiles, it is recognised that governments over the years have put in place several policies and interventions to sustain the SME sector, more needs to be done as SMEs still face daunting issues that inhibit their growth and development. Key among these are issues with capital markets. Cost of capital is still way too high and accessibility still remains a challenge to many would-be entrepreneurs despite all the talk about support for SMEs.
Consequently, inability to obtain the needed capital support cascades into other difficulties such as inability to rent premises for running of their businesses, inability to hire the requisite skills to help prop the business up, inability to procure needed machinery and raw materials. Unfortunately, state interventions tend to be clogged by either administrative bureaucracy and political nepotism or there is simply information asymmetry regarding such interventions. So here are some suggestions to help solve this quagmire:
Firstly, Government through its financial policy framework, should strive to prosecute an agenda to institute a variated loan interest policy through the Bank of Ghana. People borrowing for business should not be asked to pay the same repayment interest as those borrowing for personal consumption. i.e. if someone is borrowing to buy a car for their personal use, that person should not be made to pay the same interest on loans as the one borrowing to set up a business or buy raw materials for their business. People borrowing for business should pay lower interest rates than those borrowing for personal consumption. A modality should be put in place as to how cases of borrowing for business can be distinguished from other categories and monitoring approaches.
Secondly, people importing for business purposes, i.e., importing raw materials or machinery should have differentiated import duty from the other categories. In the healthcare sector especially, medical equipment should be given import-duty-waiver, if it can be proven that such materials or machinery are to be used in the setting up or equipping of medical facilities. These will greatly encourage ‘medi-preneurship’ among medical professionals and others. It will then cascade into creation of employment for health professionals, especially nurses, majority of whom leave the country after their training. In the current situation where hospitals are refusing to admit patients because of lack of beds and where patients are dying due to inability to access health care, such an initiative or policy will greatly curtail the needless deaths especially maternal and infant mortality in Ghana,
Thirdly, there is the need for governmental policy intervention in the area of office and business premise rentals. Many entrepreneurs have shelved their dreams mainly because the cost of office or premise rentals is so prohibiting. Others who started, have closed down their shops or premises because their expenditure (rent perpetually) far outweighed their returns. This has been made worse over the years by the dollarization of the housing market. There is need for government policy intervention if the 24-hour economy policy is to make any meaningful impact
C. Increase in Employment Avenues through expanded investment drive
It is an accepted status quo that the government cannot employ everybody. This was indeed made blatantly and abundantly clear to Ghanaians by the minister of Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, of the erstwhile NPP government of Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo, when he told graduands that they cannot rely on government for jobs because the government pay role was full.
Indeed, his statement was recently resonated by a South African politician of the DA party, Helen Zille, who said: “Give us jobs.” I hear it everywhere I go. Instead of making empty promises to people, I tell the truth about how jobs are created. Jobs aren’t handed out by politicians. They’re created when you have a government that attracts investment and builds infrastructure that works”
So instead of giving empty promises of jobs to the electorates which come back to bite the ruling political party, the government should focus on attracting more investment to create more jobs. Ghana is blessed with many natural resources which are lying untapped whiles the citizenry is clamoring for jobs.
- There is abundance of sunlight which can be harvested for solar energy. A heavy drive for investment in this area can create hundreds of thousands of jobs in:
1. Manufacturing of solar panels,
2. Wholesale and retail distribution of solar panels and batteries.
3. Installation and maintenance of solar panels
4. Jobs resulting from increase of production due to availability of cheaper energy. And here we are not only unable to satisfy our teeming unemployed graduates and school leavers with jobs, we are also grappling with power issues and fighting among ourselves.
- There are many water bodies which apart from serving as sources of water and sea products, can also serve as tourism and transport avenues. For instance, the Korle-Lagoon has for years only served as an eye-sore as residents and passers-by alike dump refuse and human waste in it. In other jurisdictions, this lagoon which stretches all the way to Kwame Nkrumah circle will have been a clean lagoon with small passenger boats carrying small pockets of travelers from Chorkor and Korle area to Kwame Nkrumah Circle or at least have swans swimming in it and delighting travelers and tourists.
- The gulf of Guinea lines up our coast from Keta, through Tema, Accra, Winneba, Cape Coast, Sekondi-Takoradi to Axim. Through investor activities, Ferries could provide means of transport to many Ghanaians thus easing the busy accident-prone Accra- Cape Coast road which for decades after independence is still a single carriage road and continuous to take many lives.
Commuters from Accra, Korle-Dansoman last stop and Tema, Nungua etc do not have to necessarily travel by road on our choked roads, They could be ferried to their various destinations by speed boats or regular ferries.
In addition to the sea serving as means of transport, there could be may Piers, Restaurants and hospitality facilities built along these coasts as well as recreational and vacation activities such as surfing, boating, scuba-diving etc. Such investments can create hundreds of thousands of jobs such as ferry captainship, sanitation guards, coast guards, life-guards, ticketing officers, accountants, tour-guides, caterers, restaurateurs, hoteliers, swimming instructors, and small article vendors and of course there will be plenty of work for the police, navy and custom officers etc.
In addition to the gulf of Guinea, there are several other water bodies such as Akosombo, Dodi Island and Bobowasi Island on the south Atlantic Ocean coast. Inland, there are several other water bodies and beaches.
Why have we settled for less when God has given us more!
- Ghana has abundance of fruits e.g. mangoes, orange etc. and yet we import wine. Why are we bent on drinking what someone else has produced out of what they have and not cast our eyes on what we have and can do with them?
- Ghana is one country which has been endowed with enormous quantity of skilled labour. Ghanaians are among the most educated people in the world so much so, a Masters’ degree is becoming a commonplace qualification. And yet poor remuneration remains a huge push factor that drives people away to other nations. In comparative terms, some categories of skilled labour are poorly paid in Ghana, thus making it more attractive to seek better rewards elsewhere. Doctors, university lecturers are seeking for greater rewards for their many years of training. Openings for university faculty in many Islamic states is attracting lecturers in droves whiles the US and Europe continue to reap effortlessly from doctors trained with tax-payers money. The labour commission, ministry of employment and other stakeholders should re-examine the salary structure of skilled labour and do the needful.
There are many more areas I can cite for example but I cannot do all of it here in this article.
In conclusion, the solution to diminishing migration which is increasingly becoming precarious and deadly, South Africa, Cambodia, Ivory Coast being cases in point, is a country that provides its citizenry with employment and wealth creation opportunities. No one loves being a stranger in another land where they are deprived of their dignity, peace of mind and safety. Though our country Ghana is better off than many other African and even Asian countries, majority of those traveling out would have stayed if conditions were enhanced. The reason the influx of white people to Africa is less than the influx of black people to Europe, Asia, Middle East and the America’s is because those places are considered more beautiful and there is opportunity there. So, if the government of Ghana is serious about “fixing the country” as we have been brutishly and unapologetically told by ‘Operation Dudula’ and ‘March and March’ civil organisation groups in South Africa to do, the above is the solution.
Let me end by citing ‘Vanity’ a heralding poem of the late Birago Diop, a famous Pan-Africanist.
“ If we tell, gently, gently, All that we shall one day have to tell
Who then will hear our voices without laughter,
Sad complaining voices of beggars
Who indeed will hear them without laughter?
If we cry roughly of our torments,
Ever increasing from the start of things
What eyes will watch our large mouths
Shaped by the laughter of big children
What eyes will watch our large mouth?
What hearts will listen to our clamoring?
What ear to our pitiful anger
Which grows in us like a tumor
In the black depth of our plaintive throats?
When our Dead comes with their Dead
When they have spoken to us in their clumsy voices;
Just as our ears were deaf
To their cries, to their wild appeals
Just as our ears were deaf
They have left on the earth their cries,
In the air, on the water,
where they have traced their signs for us blind deaf and unworthy Sons
Who see nothing of what they have made
In the air, on the water, where they have traced their signs
And since we did not understand the dead
Since we have never listened to their cries
If we weep, gently, gently
If we cry roughly to our torments
What heart will listen to our clamoring,
What ear to our sobbing hearts?”
Those who have ears, let them hear.!
Author: Professor Frederick Doe, Faculty of Management, UPSA
