First Published on March 3, 2017

Sometime last week, Samia Nkrumah made a statement on ‘The Lounge’ show. She alleged Ghana’s economic system is rigged by the West, to favor their industries. She specifically accused America’s CIA of doing the job. 

She didn’t present any evidence to back her allegations, and I doubt she has one to that effect. But I thought her statement should have generated some discussion. I thought the network would have made a news item out of it to create some conversation on the issue because I recall her saying, “we can’t begin solving the problem if we don’t talk about it,” but that didn’t happen. 

Ghana turns 60 in a few days, but my country’s age does not reflect her development. We still depend heavily on the export of raw materials such as cocoa, gold, bauxite, and recently crude, and it’s no hidden fact that the locations of these materials remain the poorest in the country. And the prices of these commodities are being determined on the world market controlled by the West, and my intuition tells me they always quote prices that benefit them. 

For some reason, successive governments haven’t found it necessary to create an atmosphere that will equip its citizens to be self-sufficient and contribute meaningfully to nation-building. The nation has failed to properly educate its citizens, create an education model that will widen the worldview of its citizens, instill a sense of nationalism, and make them problem solvers. Instead, governments have operated a colonial system that makes the people overly dependent on the state for jobs and other needs. 

Ghana has an industrial sector heavily controlled by foreign Multinational Corporations that have clever means of evading tax, and the corrupt politicians and authorities make things easier. Club beer which happens to be the nation’s most popular beer, is produced by ABL, owned by the brewing giant SABMiller, with parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev, headquartered in Belgium. You see the complexity of this ownership tree. 

FYI, ABL is listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange at GHc 0.10 per share, whiles its parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev, is listed on the NYSE at US$105.85 a share. ABL also happens to be the second-largest brewery in Ghana, second to Guinness Ghana, with whom it shares a monopolized market. It is the same story with other consumer goods, health products, mining, petroleum, real estate, hotel, and retail.

The over-reliance on the government to meet the needs of the people, coupled with corruption, mismanagement, and pressure from other invisible forces, has made it impossible for governments to create an enabling environment for local businesses to thrive and compete with their multinational counterparts. Owning and operating a manufacturing company in Ghana is capital intensive, so only the big guys survive. 

The lack of appropriate policies and enforcement has also opened up the retail market, which is crowded with foreign businesses that stock their shops with goods produced outside the country, rendering our currency to a hairline in the currency market storm. 

Today, the government talks about industrializing the country through a public-private partnership. They plan to do this amid economic hardship with high inflation, lack of reliable and affordable power, high indebtedness, poor transport infrastructure, and a local market with low purchasing power. So even if this industrialization happens through PPP, I guess you know the private in that equation. Plus in this new age, more factories do not translate to more jobs. Technology got the jobs.  

I am no expert in economics, finance, or governance. But I have a fair knowledge of the history of developed nations, and our country’s current trend does not lead to a progressive and sovereign destination. I can’t prove Samia’s “Babylon system” accusation but look around you, and you will see it operating. And if we have the interest of this nation, our generation, and the next’s at heart, then we have to familiarise ourselves with this mole, talk about it, and find means to shut it.