It ?is chilling coming face to face with shocking revelations that the country spends billions of dollars to import items for which local substitutes can be found
It is clear that the country has neither comparative nor competitive advantage in the production of vehicles, machinery, equipment, spirits and other durable goods, but it can certainly completely stop the importation of items such as meat, fish such as tilapia and other aquatic stock, fruit juices, rice and most annoyingly, catapults and toothpicks.
In times past, local farmers and artisans went for fresh stems and branches of trees from nearby and made catapults for subsistence hunting and recreation. Rivers and streams were replete with fish stock and animal rearing was done by almost every household at the countryside.
Not too long ago, rice was a dear meal eaten almost two to three times a year, only on festive occasions. Today, the story is different; the per capita consumption of rice is averaging six kilogrammes per year and still growing.
However, quick urbanisation with its associated changes in taste has seen the average preference of the Ghanaian shifting towards foreign products. The phenomenon is getting worse by the day with mass media adverts that can make even a pig in a poke attractive to the senses. The situation is not helped by the business-as-usual attitude of the typical Ghanaian entrepreneur.
This paper has done a cursory search around and can say that most foreign investors succeed where indigenous businesses collapse. Examples include restaurants and pubs, factories, marketing and distribution companies. Such facts make it intriguing and one does not know whether to condemn our growing taste for foreign products or blame the system for the misalignment.
But should this unsustainable taste pattern be allowed to flourish? The GRAPHIC BUSINESS thinks the answer is a stark NO!
The paper believes that the country should make deliberate and serious efforts to replace some of the major imports with local substitutes. These should include rice, meat, poultry products, vegetable oil, tomato puree and wax prints.
The GRAPHIC BUSINESS suggests that industrialisation targeted at these substitutes and agro-processing should form part of the priority areas for spending the oil inflow.
Enough lip-service has been paid to import substitution industrialisation in the country. Somehow, it shows our thoughts on what is right, but we need to start implementing them, and we must do so now or never.
Graphic Business Tuesday, 25 February 2014
