Coronavirus: Brace yourselves up for tough times ahead – Federation of Labour

The Deputy General Secretary of the Ghana Federation of Labour, Mr Ken Koomson, has said that Ghanaians must brace themselves up for tougher periods ahead following the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on global economies.

He told host of Sunrise on 3FM Alfred Ocansey on Thursday that given Africa and, for that matter, Ghana becoming a big market for goods produced by the advanced countries, citizens will have to be prepared for difficult season ahead due to the devastation of these giant economies by the pandemic.

Mr Koomson, however, said to be able to deal with the impact of the pandemic on local businesses, African governments will have to rethink the kind of policies that are formulated in supporting and growing their own economies.

“We would have to brace ourselves for more difficult times ahead, it’s unfortunate that I have to sound that way,” he said.

“Given the developments that we see in other parts of the world and considering that this is a global village you cannot pretend that you are standing alone.

“Most of the jobs that have been created are by foreign direct investments and so going forward we have to rethink our economic and political module as Ghana and Africa to see what kind of methods that could be adopted in the future to ensure that in such unexpected events we are not affected in that magnitude,” he added.

He further noted that Ghana’s first president Dr Kwame Nkrumah set a good example that should have been followed by current Africa leaders in building a resilient economy through industrialization.

“Kwame Nkrumah set a precedent that should have been followed – industrialization and resourcing our local businesses.

“Take, for instance, the textile industries, in the past it employed about 25,000 people, today we are talking about less than 1000. So we have to ask: What really is the reason why the textile industry is recording such low numbers?

“The textile industry is unable to compete with products that [are] imported from China because we should understand that this is a country that is the supermarket for the world. We import almost everything including toothpick.”