40-year dev’t plan apt – Lecturer disagrees with Osafo-Marfo

A lecturer at Ashesi University, Dr Lloyd Amoah, has stated that “there is nothing wrong with having a 40-year plan” for Ghana, a view contrary to that expressed by Senior Minister-designate Yaw Osafo Marfo.

Mr Marfo had said he did not believe in any development plan that exceeded 10 years, hence the 40-year National Development Plan proposed by the previous government was wrong.

According to him, exigencies of world economics do not support an idea of putting in a long term development plan that goes beyond 10 years, further stating that advanced economies no longer talk about long term plans that go beyond 10 years.

Speaking during his vetting by the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Friday January 20, he said: “I was involved in the discussion of the 40-year development plan; in fact I was consulted and I made my views clear from day one that I did not believe in any plan in excess of 10 years because of exigencies of world economics and, therefore, I will prefer that we restrict ourselves to a 10-year development plan.

“Dr Nii Moi Thompson (Chair of the National Development Planning Commission) called me a couple of times to talk about this and I gave some specific notes of mine particularly on the infrastructure side, but I haven’t seen the final outcome of the development plan although I have had some inputs into it relating to the blood of this system, which is power or energy.”

However, the Afro-China analyst insisted: “Technology change need not hamper that [40-year plan]. Indeed, China has a 100-year plan. Of course, it has five-year plans that read into that 100-year plan. Look where they are.”

He made this known on his Facebook wall on Friday, January 20. He maintained: “I disagree with the Senior Minister-to-be on that. I must add that he likes [to] debate and is a forceful debater.”