{"id":16071,"date":"2014-05-02T10:04:28","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T10:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=16071"},"modified":"2014-05-02T10:04:28","modified_gmt":"2014-05-02T10:04:28","slug":"what-you-dont-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=16071","title":{"rendered":"What you don’t know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month I took an inventory of my household to find out how many Made-in-Ghana goods we were using on a regular basis. \u00a0The results of my inventory, which I printed in this newspaper, were very eye opening, to say the least.<\/p>\n

They let me know that even I, the President of Ghana, could do better about patronising our local enterprises. \u00a0But the lesson was learned quickly: we are in the midst of replacing all of our foreign-made \u00a0goods with all of the available locally made goods.<\/p>\n

After I took my inventory, I encouraged other Ghanaians to take an inventory of things in their own homes and to start asking themselves, \u201cIs this made in Ghana? \u00a0If not, could it have been?\u201d<\/p>\n

The information made me curious to know more, so I began yet another inventory\u2014pooling together data, including a few figures I’d already shared during my State of the Nation Address, on the amount, in volume and money, that we spend on some basic food items. This is what I discovered:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Volume and Value of Specified Imported Items\u20142013<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Item\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n

Net Mass (Kg)\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\nCif Gh\u00a2<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wheat & Meslin<\/td>\n496,884,889.39<\/td>\n449,165,028.92<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tomatoes (prepared or preserved otherwise<\/p>\n

than by vinegar)<\/td>\n

113,739,976.77<\/td>\n222,232,008.68<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Rice<\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 576,873,792.73<\/td>\n741,177,405.36<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sugar<\/td>\n215,825,389.63<\/td>\n275,267,050.05<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Frozen Fish<\/td>\n264,915,408.94<\/td>\n561,429,861.65<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Frozen Poultry<\/td>\n148,165,334.34<\/td>\n335,248,037.83<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Palm Kernel Oil<\/td>\n1,111, 349.04<\/td>\n2,624,604.59<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Soya-Bean Oil<\/td>\n2,621,615.60<\/td>\n6,723,710.19<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Groundnut Oil<\/td>\n36,221.89<\/td>\n18,377.78<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Olive Oil<\/td>\n634,474.49<\/td>\n4,552,139.10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Palm Oil<\/td>\n118,892,383.68<\/td>\n234,678,373.83<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sunflower Seed Oil<\/td>\n1,090,984.17<\/td>\n3,100,380.17<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Numbers are not always what they seem. \u00a0Sometimes they have to be considered in a larger context. \u00a0For instance, the amount of groundnut oil that we imported last year\u201436,221.89 kilos\u2014appears to be relatively small, especially when held up against the much larger amounts of the other imports. \u00a0Yet that number no longer seems small when you come to understand that it represents a 1,272.24% increase from the previous year, 2012, during which we imported only 2,639.61 kilos of groundnut oil. \u00a0And, of course, all of this begs the larger question: \u00a0why are we importing groundnut oil, to begin with? \u00a0Why are we importing frozen fish and frozen chicken? \u00a0Are we not capable of producing these food items ourselves?<\/p>\n

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah once said, \u201cWe have the blessing of the wealth of our vast resources, the power of our talents and the potentialities of our people. \u00a0Let us grab now the opportunities before us and meet the challenge to our survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imagine if all of this data represented the sales and profits of Ghanaian enterprises. \u00a0Imagine the number of additional jobs and workers that it would take for us to be able to produce, the supply that it would take to meet the obvious demand for items such as wheat, sugar, rice, and soya-bean oil. \u00a0It would be gainful employment for Ghanaians. \u00a0Imagine, too, if all the money that is currently being spent on these imported items, billions of cedis, remained in Ghana and was allowed to circulate through our system?<\/p>\n

Some people believe that what you don\u2019t know can\u2019t hurt you. \u00a0I believe that knowledge is power. \u00a0Many of us don\u2019t know how our individual actions affect the nation as a whole. \u00a0What each and every one of us does can make a tremendous difference in Ghana\u2019s immediate future and it can also go a long way to help us realise the dream of becoming a stable, self-sufficient nation.<\/p>\n

I am working with the private sector to create an environment with conditions that encourage our local entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into reality, conditions that support the continued growth and success of those local enterprises and the merchandise they produce, as well as the services they offer. \u00a0We will be announcing some of the initiatives and incentives in the coming days and weeks.<\/p>\n

This data that I have shared is alarming. \u00a0The massive amounts of money we are spending needlessly on the importation of these particular items should be a topic of conversation, but it should also be a call to action. \u00a0It should inspire us to make some changes, for the good of our beloved Ghana.<\/p>\n

What would happen if each of us made a commitment right now, today, to buy only the Made-in-Ghana varieties of the items listed on this inventory? \u00a0How would that benefit our nation, immediately and in the long-term?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s find out together.<\/p>\n

For more information, please visit www.ghana.gov.gh<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: Graphic Online<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month I took an inventory of my household to find out how many Made-in-Ghana goods we were using on a regular basis. \u00a0The results of my inventory, which I printed in this newspaper, were very eye opening, to say the least. They let me know that even I, the President of Ghana, could do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}