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Editorial News of Thursday, 25 October 2001

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Three million professionals abandon Ghana

It is estimated that over three million Ghanaian professionals have left the shores of the nation since independence to seek for greener pastures.

The Ghanaian Times, which carries the story, says this is due to the complete stagnation and under- development of the country’s economy leading to extensive unemployment and the inability to broaden access to quality education and healthcare.

The Attorney- General and Minister of Justice, Nana Akuffo Addo, at the inauguration of the Chartered Institute of Administration, Ghana, in Accra described as alarming the way the youth were fleeing the country, especially at a time that the nation was in dire need of high quality professionals to regenerate and expand the economy towards the desired sustainable growth.

Nana Akuffo Addo urged up and coming professionals to join in the relentless quest of finding lasting solutions to improve and propel the economy thereby making Ghana a leading player on the global market.

About 40 per cent of Ghanaians live below the poverty line and because of that the structural transformation of the national economy as envisioned in the IMF and World Bank Economic Recovery Programme has not occurred, he observed.

Over 80 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange receipts still come from the traditional commodities namely cocoa, gold and timber, he stated and therefore stressed the need for all Ghanaians to strive to rationalise the situation to boost the country’s economy.