Coronavirus Outbreak Must Present Opportunity For Ghana To Speed Up Production – Apostle Francis Amoako Attah
The Founder and Leader of Parliament Chapel International, Apostle Francis Amoako Attah has urged the Ghanaian government to earnestly build the production and manufacturing capacity through massive industrialization in the wake of the novel coronavirus spread so as to become independent from China even when the pandemic is over.
In an exclusive interview, Apostle Francis Amoako Attah said the outbreak of the Coronavirus should present an opportunity for Ghana and Africa as a whole, to speed up and industrialize and expand its manufacturing base.
According to him, anything that happens in China has effect on the world economy because of its manufacturing capacity and that as soon as the Coronavirus pandemic is over, the world will begin to fall again on China but when Africa and Ghana for that matter, is able to build its economy, there will be no need for Ghana to look to China for survival.
He also believes that Ghanaian companies must rise up and do much production with good quality ad finishing.
Apostle Francis Amoako Attah averred that 63 years of Ghana’s independence, the country must be able to stand on its feet economically; falling on the prophetic words from Dr. Kwame Nkrumah when he said “The black man is capable of managing his own affairs.”
He said the biggest problem Africa is having is not their skin colour, but the way we “manage our economy. Management of things, management of our finances, management of our marriages and our homes become our biggest problems,” he said
He pointed out that Ghana and most countries in the world go to China to import items into their countries because their things are cheap and they have neat and good finishing.
He mentioned that Ghana can do more with the abundant natural resources it has to be able to produce at cheaper cost and with good quality and finishing.
Apostle Francis Amoako Attah explained that China’s economy keeps growing and expanding over the years even with the upsurge of deadly diseases which seemed to have collapsed their economy.
He said in 2002/2003 the deadly SARS broke out in China, Beijin at the time the country was the 6th largest economy growing at the rate of 8.7%.
“Now look, in 2019 and 2020, we have Coronavirus emerging from China, Wuhan when China is the 2nd largest economy. Its economy moved from growth rate of 8.7% to 19.3%. This tells us how fast the Chinese economy is growing,” he said.
He noted that Ghana is a gateway, and any gate that is not managed properly becomes a stumbling block to that country.
“For me, this is the time companies must speed up and make their products cheap and with great quality. There is this notion that anything made in Ghana is expensive and their finishing is poor, so many people go to China because their things are cheaper and they have good finishing,” he said.
He advised that when one is competing, “you make sure that you manage your price and make sure that you have good finishing to your products and they must also be of good quality.”
Apostle Amoako Attah intimated that this is the time, companies do their best and shift countries’ attention to Ghana and urged government to take its Factories, One District One Factory policy seriously and invest in ensuring that it builds the manufacturing capacities of indigenous companies.
He said: “We are poor not because we don’t have money in our pockets, because we don’t have ideas. This end time, the definition of somebody who is poor, is not the one who has no money, but the one who lacks ideas. Africa we are poor not because we don’t have resources, not because we don’t have money, but because we don’t have ideas”
He also strongly advocated for government to ensure that it supports local companies to go into serious manufacturing and export, and that Ghana needs to stop exporting raw materials.
“It is time we process; because without processing every promise dream become a nightmare,” he said.
By: PROSPER AGBENYEGA
