Ghana Needs Creative Thinkers To Govern Not A Bunch Of Academicians

I spent most of my early adulthood in Ghana but even before I left its shores at the age of 23 I had explored many business opportunities that came my way. Gold jewelry, fishing, chocolate export, clothing export, name it. If I found it welcoming and lucrative I definitely explored it. In spite of my handicap with capital investment at the time, I gathered information from my mentors who were visibly twenty �something� years older than I was but they did usher me into certain political circles. Interesting as that was, the memories I have still remain fresh and somehow exert a braking force whenever I entertain the thoughts of doing business in my beloved country of birth. Somehow, we still think that having a background in law, accounting and economics is the sure way to ride the tidal waves the world economy finds itself. Well this is my opinion though it may matter not; I sure hope that some politician will find this stimulating. Cocoa farming and export of beans: We have done things the same way since Nkrumah�s time concerning cocoa. We depend on the cocoa trees planted decades ago by our ancestors. It baffles me that a country that claims one of its natural exports to be cocoa will not inject loans into starting new farms or cocoa processing plants to create jobs. Sure! Some friends have argued with me that no one wants to farm. Yes! Why would they? Farming is not lucrative enough is it? But perhaps the reason why it is not lucrative is because our government does not do enough to help it grow. Irrigation methods that work, fertilizing, insect and plant eating repelling methods yada yada, yada� Cocoa bean does not earn much on the international scene but chocolate does. Oh yes! 99.9 percent Cocoa is one of the most expensive commodities to be found in the Western world. Whiles we happily sell a kilo of coco beans for little more than a cup of �hausa koko� to Europe, they process it into cocoa powder and sell it for a leg and an arm to the US and other continents where bakers and chocolatiers jump on it and literally sell the end product for a price worth more than an ounce of gold. Our problem? Creative solutions! Singapore made it this far because they managed to create finished product with palm nuts. Yes! Palm nuts. They export more palm oil to the US than Ghana and of course I prefer the Singapore brand. Why? Because they have managed to remove the odor and transformed it into oil fit to be compared to olive oil. Hold on! Let me read your thoughts. What about chocolate factory? Ahhhh! Yes! It�s an embarrassment of a factory. They do not comply with international standards so stores like Wal-Mart, sears and the big brand name store will not retail their products hence limiting their production export to a few countries and to Ghanaians who can�t even afford to buy. The last time I was there, I was ushered into two security gates to finally enter and waited about an hour to buy a carton chocolates�talk about unnecessary bureaucracy. Job creation comes from gifted ability to be creative with the resources you have at hand. It isn�t about borrowing more and more�It�s about identifying the right initiatives and investing wisely. Whiles I read the daily political gimmicks of both the NDC and NPP, none of them have still come up with any creative solution to create more jobs or increase our net worth as a Nation. They call conferences, throw GDP figures left and right and have academic titles that could supersede the popes but nothing creative. I�m not about politics, in fact if you ask me, they are all a bunch of opportunists who feed on the illiterates and less fortunate in our society but I sure do hope that my beloved Ghana finds the right person in the future. Until my next article tunes you into my thoughts of fisheries and the rot with deep sea fishing in Ghana, I remain your truly.