Savoring the speech by Dr. Bawumia at this event this week:

CONFERENCE ON BUILDING RESILIENT INDUSTRIES AND INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION IN AFRICA: THE ROLE OF CHINA. HOSTED BY INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE (IDEG). (4TH AND 5TH JULY, 2017, ACCRA, GHANA)

Though it got the script way past 1 am last night. I still had to read it.

Dr. Bawumia says he and Nana Addo and the NPP envision a "Big Band" development investment to kick off progress in Ghana. And I must commend the high level of thinking he demonstrated at the lecture. I have been expecting a series of good moves by the NPP government but this one is a GIANT leap.

Nana Addo said , Dr. Bawumia's analysis of Ghana's economy is lucid and I can't agree more. And folks it seems this is just one of his many wild card economic policy initiatives he is holding for this country.

We now have a plan to renovate or rebuild all 8300+ primary school structures in this country. THAT sums it all for me. By 2020 Ghana's Economy should well be 100 Billion $, a 2.5 times growth in 4 years. That is a Ghana of the 21st Century I can hope in.

PAKAR

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Ghana Marshal Plan 2017-2020

Word of warning:>>

A 20 billion dollars marshal plan for a nation that is dominated by buying-and-selling. It's tricky achieving a durable progress. We must avoid business as usual at all cost.There is also no reason why a bigger amount, say 30 Billion $ fund cannot be created with the involvement of the Ghanaian and African Diaspora.

My top areas that manufacturing enterprises must be established>>>

1. Manufacturing equipment engineering

2. Pharmaceutical technology and Bioequivalence Research

3. Crop improvements and farm mechanization technology

4. Electronics and electronic assembly and advanced ICT engineering

5. Local food process engineering,

6. Building and transport engineering

No to rudimentary industries with low budget and low product output. Let's just look at the items we import and create industries to compete in those areas, leveraging our local competitive advantage. There is not no need repeating exactly what others are doing without local process and tool replacements to achieve competitive advantage. Those easy to run industries like pure-water and drinks, there are thousands playing in this domain already.

Strategies For Ghana's Industrial Expansion: One-District-One-Factory

How about promoting the idea of established Ghanaian companies creating subsidiaries that are of interest to Government. On new industries and in new locations that match the priorities of the new Government's plan of one-district-one-factory. An initiative to provide these companies with the incentives needed to create new subsidiaries in collaboration with Ghanaian startups / government agencies / external investors / other Ghanaian investors. Look for the top 500 Ghanaian companies and engage them in a joint exercise of industrial expansion across the country in record time.

Four years is too short a time for new companies to emerge that can produce the kind of industrial output the nation needs to fight poverty and unemployment. Established companies have strong corporate structures and industrial know-how to make impact in 3-4 years. Leveraging the power of established companies across the country to drive this industrial expansion project is a smart move. This will be a good first phase action, while we develop a medium term plan of new enterprise creations anchored on an authentic national innovation system.

The industry of tomorrow is industry 4.0: it's going to be all about individualized production. For this kind of industry Ghana is totally unprepared and incapable of participating. None of the nation's Universities is in the position to initiate any credible development in industry 4.0. This fact should not cause us any distress. Many countries across the globe are presently initiating action in this direction, let's set off now.

In the area of Biomedical R&D and healthcare services, industry 4.0 means personalized medicine. We need to develop systems for biobanking (cord blood, teen-age microbiota), genome sequencing, biomarker monitoring devices and wearable/implantable medicine dispensing devices. Strategies for national preventive treatment service to drive health promotion through nation-wide campaigns to control diseases in the population.

Here is what I think we need:

1.   We need Chief Scientific Officer in every ministry. 

2.   We need Ghana Research Council to fund R&D.

3.  We need Centres of Excellence for Research in every region. 
4. We need Technological Centres in every region (for Industry 4.0 people to craft things). 

The way forward is clear.

Let's do it