The Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jr., has raised questions about Ghana’s status as the largest producer of gold and other resources on the continent and the contrasting record of alarming levels of debt.
Speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, the seasoned journalist stressed that there is a need for a rethinking of Ghana’s development paradigms so that resources from the country can be used for local development.
“So, we need to rethink our development paradigm completely. We need to rethink our development paradigm to the extent that we can exploit our own resources for development. Over the last week, there has been a huge discussion on social media about gold and how much of it we are producing. In terms of official records, how much gold is leaving here, how much we are getting out of gold—and I think that is where to go, that is what we should be looking at.
“How do we become the largest producer of gold in Africa and still are so heavily indebted? How are we the second-largest producer of cocoa in the world and we are still where we are today? How come our soil has virtually everything, including petrol, gas, diamonds, and so on, and we are where we are today?” he asked.
According to Kwesi Pratt Jr., this paradox of events needs to be examined urgently to move the country from its current trenches of indebtedness.
“This is the paradox we need to examine, and if we do that very well, it is just possible for us to find a way out of this trench that we find ourselves in,” he added.
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