Without a total mindset change from Ghanaians, the much-sought-after economic transformation will continue to elude the country. This is the viewpoint of Senior Partner at AB & David Africa, David Ofosu-Dorte.
Although there are other conditions needed for the country’s economic growth and development, David Ofosu-Dorte says all those will amount to nothing without a radical shift in the national mindset.
At the JoyNews & Amalgam of Professional Bodies Speaker Series, Ofosu-Dorte argued that he cannot fathom how the country will develop when there is a mindset that only prefers imported goods over locally produced ones.
This cultural and psychological situation, he says, is a huge barrier to national development.
“We tend to prefer foreign goods. So, even the things we produce, we like to import them,” he lamented that there should be a conscious effort to break that chain that motivates us to even import “yemu ade3” [tripe] and foreign rice.
To him, all hope is not lost, as it has been possible in the past. He recounted the Acheampong-era campaign that promoted Made-in-Ghana products that once shaped the tastes of Ghanaians in favor of locally manufactured goods.
He further cited examples of Ghanaians abroad who still cling to brands like Milo and Peak milk, both of which were once proudly manufactured in Ghana.
Beyond cultural preferences, Ofosu-Dorte exposed a deeper economic distortion, which is the procurement loopholes in the public sector that incentivize importing even when local alternatives exist.
Due to corruption and parochial gains, some public officials will bypass local alternatives for imported goods just to benefit from procurement.
“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,” he recounted.
The result of the situation, he says, is a double loss for the country. Local industries are stifled, and precious foreign exchange is wasted, drawing a direct line between these consumption and procurement habits and the persistent depreciation of the Ghana cedi.
He said, “When we turn around and complain about the dollar to cedi exchange rate, we forget that the mindset that is contributing to it is a mindset that requires us to be corrupt by procuring from outside, and by consuming things we otherwise produce here.”
David Ofosu-Dorte says Ghana’s struggles are not just macroeconomic puzzles for the economic managers to solve, but symptoms of a deeper societal addiction to foreign goods. He is therefore calling for a rewiring of the Ghanaian mindset to make an economic breakthrough.
