Ghana has not made much progress after 62 years – Prof Adei

A former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Stephen Adei, has said Ghana has not made much progress 62 years after independence.

According to him, Ghana is developing at a slow pace because the country lacks a systematic agenda it is pursuing.

Ghana on 6 March 2019 will celebrate 62 years of independence but many have bemoaned the pace of the country’s development as compared to others like Malaysia that gained their independence same year as Ghana in 1957.

Speaking to Benjamin Akakpo in an exclusive interview, Prof Adei said the country needs a systematic agenda to turn things around for the rapid growth and development.

He said: “After 62 years, we have made some progress but we could have done much better. As a nation we have failed in having a systematic agenda in which we have pursued step by step and our politics has been so bad that almost every eight or four years, we start it all over again.

“We don’t have even a basic infrastructure plan. I must say my predecessor at the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) under Kwesi Botchwey, they have a draft infrastructure plan which I’m going to look at and see how we are going to operationalise it and make it simpler to follow.

“So, we’ve not had a systematic agenda for turning our country around and as a result, it is almost like going two steps forward and one step back and we haven’t gone as much as we should have.”

Prof Adei among others was former Head of UN System in South Africa, UNDP Resident Representative in Namibia, Economist and Chief of the Directorate of Africa Bureau, UNDP, New York; Senior Economist of the Commonwealth Secretariat, London and staff of the Ghana Investment Centre rising to Deputy Director and Head of Research.

He has taught economics at both the University of Ghana and the University of Sydney and undertaken several consultancy assignments.