A tale of Ghana; our grasp of the tail

To start with, I hope Hon. Adwoa Safo does not say she wrote this article nor she gave me the idea to.

Penny wise, pound foolish. This I suggest should be our best economic module moving forward. It may seem an irony but as much as all our economic modules, advisors and leaders have failed, maybe the rejected corner stone would be our safest place of refuge and solace.

We have been to the World Bank, IMF, AfDB, USA, Europe and China but these have only deepened our woes. So have our home grown policies and austerity practices. One thing is clear, that we know our problems. But we either fail to accentuate them for redress or we trivialize and fortify them with our penchant for mediocrity and theory – that is the significant gap between our import and export in the country, lack of value addition to our agricultural and mineral products, poor tax collection and revenue generation, lack of a comprehensive agricultural sector (from cultivation to harvesting to marketing) and also poor regulation and supervision of the private sector.

So what has been the compound effect of all these? I woke up to the news on last week Tuesday morning that Ghana has the highest cost of living in Africa and Accra is the most expensive city to live in. This does not come in surprising for Accra is both the administrative and economic capital of Ghana with a lot of investment opportunities. We have the most expensive hotels, malls, groceries, guest houses and render the most expensive services. Transportation cost and rent are also at a high.

All the public and private companies or institutions are headquartered in Accra. And yet, we expect rural urban migration to plummet, human and vehicular traffic be reduced and the city to be as clean as Kigali. Let’s not forget we even lack the political will to implement our laws and so a banana republic would not be a less definition of us.

Consider this case study of the United States of America. Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp are all headquartered in the state of California. All the major car manufacturing or engineering firms like General Motors, Chevrolet and Ford are headquartered in the state of Michigan.

The headquarters of Deloite is in the state of New York, Trump Towers in New York and Microsoft in Washington. Some of the biggest law firms in terms of revenue, top clients and number of lawyers are found in the US. The headquarters of WLRK is New York, DLA Piper in Washington, Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago, the third largest city in the US, and White & Case in New York. What do you see? A careful, conscious and strategic effort is made at developing every state and major city.

The economic structures and businesses are spread out to ensure equity and decentralization of powers, resources and economic growth poles. In effect, one could say California is the social media hub in US, Michigan the engineering hub and New York the financial and cultural hub. This way, the various states and major cities are properly identified and developed with an efficiently run local government ensuring law and order.

Looking at Ghana, anything and everything is in Accra. The best hospitals and most expensive schools are in Accra. The biggest churches and mosques are in Accra. The biggest and nicest malls are in Accra. The best roads are in Accra. The best restaurants are there too. All the biggest entertainment programs are held in Accra – The “Ghana Music Awards” and “Ghana meets Naija” are.

All the biggest skyscrapers are in Accra. The embassies and consulates too. As of 30th June, 2017, there are 37 licensed banks in Ghana and all are headquartered in Accra. I don’t know if Accra has the most beautiful women too.

Considering the media, of any form, be it print, radio or television, the Washington Post is located in Washington, The Herald in West Virginia, New York Times in New York, CNN International in Atlanta and Fox News in New York. These are all major news outlets that are listened to worldwide but are located in different states of the country.

In Ghana, the Daily Graphic, Ghanaian Times, Daily Guide, The Spectator, Citi FM, Joy FM, Starr FM, Adom FM, TV 3, GTV, Metro TV, TV Africa, Joy News, GH One and a lot more others are located in Accra. It isn’t that there is no media in other regions of Ghana but the question is which ones have the resources, power, influence, personnel, are most listened to, pay their journalists well and make the most impact. When was the last time you heard a major breaking news item or an investigative report from a radio station in the Volta Region or in the Upper East Region?

Invariably, the “Justice for All Program” was spearheaded by Joy FM and the “#StopGalamseyNow” Campaign pioneered by Citi Fm. It is frightening to remark that there is no other print media in the nine other regions of Ghana.

Equally, the poorest communities are in Accra. The highest rates of crime and prostitution are in Accra. The dirtiest city in Ghana is Accra. The biggest slums are in Accra. Streetism and hawking are most popular in Accra. 90% of the money involved in corruption is to be traced to Accra. The chunk of those who sleep in mansions are in Accra as much as those who sleep in kiosks. Cholera breaks in Accra and so does diarrhea.

So then, one thing is imminent or has already happened. Accra is highly saturated with the good and bad of Ghana. It is therefore not surprising it is the most expensive city to live in Africa considering the sharp acute contrast between the poor, middle income and the rich.

Transportation cost in Accra is very high and rent is uncontrollably high. It is true an average salary earner on the daily wage bill spends about 30 – 40% of that amount on transportation within the city. With all these, it is clear we earned this retribution – to be the most expensive country to live in Africa and our capital too.

It is my hope that the following would foment us as a peace loving people, as it were, and not pit us along political lines.

1. Oil discovery, exploration and drilling is in the Western Region of Ghana. Thus, it makes no sense that all the companies involved are headquartered in Accra. It would make more economic and development sense that there is a turnaround in this. If so, Joe Mettle may have to chair such a committee and turn things around.

2. Brong Ahafo Region is the biggest producer of agricultural products in Ghana. It makes up the food basket of the country. Thus, it would again make more economic sense to situate agricultural production and manufacturing companies there. It should also have a lot of factories. Let us make the region the agricultural hub of Ghana – from cultivation through to value addition.

3. Similarly, the Ashanti and Central Regions are the most cultural and historic endowed places in Ghana. It would also make tourism and economic sense to have the biggest museums and historic depositories there. That way, we would have particular places which would hold our heritage, culture, history and values in high esteem. We would then tell our own story and do so transcending generations.

4. The only and sole remedy to monopoly is the law. Just as in “The Men Who Built America”, the government used the law to break the monopoly of large conglomerates like that of Rockefeller in Standard Oil and equally that of J.P Morgan. It worked. The American economy grew and a lot more jobs were created. There arose competition, quality assurance and customer satisfaction. As such, the private sector has to be regulated and closely supervised to prevent over pricing of goods and services.

I conclude by adjuring us the citizenry not to be perfunctory in our approach to handling this canker but instead carefully decentralize public and private setups to ensure economic equity and balance in all 10 regions of Ghana. This would reduce overcrowding, migration, crime, cost of living, human and vehicular traffic in Accra.

It would also improve sanitation and help us attain our goal of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa. I believe in Ghana; we don’t deserve to grasp the tail. Our tale can and must be one of head, forefront and guide. I am asking us to choose evolution over revolution. That way, we would truly develop. God so bless our homeland Ghana and make her great and strong.