Africa’s first-ever appointed Professor Extraordinaire for supply and value chain management (SBL UNISA), Professor Douglas Boateng has expressed the conviction that the younger generation of Ghana is ready for a mindset revolution for Africa and Ghana’s development.
He made this comment in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show while discussing the need to develop human capital for Ghana’s development through strategic sourcing, industrialization and supply chain governance.
Prof. Boateng decried the sorry state of Ghana’s insatiable desire for foreign goods as he noted that the country imports products even as basic as agricultural products and underwear. He added that Ghanaians might prefer to import rather than produce because of the view that imported goods are cheaper than locally made goods. He observed, however, that the mistake we make in this area is turning a blind eye to the short and long term effects of purchasing these imported goods.
He suggested that Ghana harnesses the resources at our disposal to benefit ourselves. He appreciated the fact that the incumbent government had introduced its flagship programme, the One District, One Factory to make this possible. Meanwhile, he advised that this is fully possible if we have a “mindset revolution”.
Speaking further on having a mindset revolution, Prof. was keen on the fact that making people aware, it can go a long way to bring the change we need. This is where he was convinced that the youth are ready for this revolution and subsequently a change.
“If you make the younger generation aware, they listen. It has to be a continuous thing not just a one-off something. I have been engaging with them and I see that they listen. They want a better future for themselves. It is just that they need to be told”, he stated.
In accordance with this, Prof. Douglas Boateng has begun an engagement with the youth on the GMABC platforms (e.TV Ghana, Happy FM and YFM) dubbed ‘My Future, Your Future, Our Future”. He says of this project, “It is geared at basically galvanizing the youth. Let’s all come together to support what the government is doing. The future looks bright and the best of Ghana is ahead of us. How do we do it? It is a collective effort. Sometimes, we also need to look at ourselves and see what contribution we are making to try and correct some of these unfortunate errors of poverty traps that have been created. So the plan is to galvanize the current generation to help move Ghana and Africa forward”.
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah