Let’s make every day ‘made in Ghana day’ – Mahama

President John Mahama says Ghanaians should make every day a “made in Ghana day”.

He says that is the only way that Ghana can promote its own brand of products and through that, stop importing virtually everything from outside.

Speaking at the 57th independence anniversary at the Black Star Square, President John Mahama said besides wearing Ghana-made clothing on Fridays as introduced by former President Kufuor’s Government, there was the need to extend such patriotism to all Ghanaian products.

“We should all continue with the practice of putting on national wear introduced by President Kufuor’s Government”, Mr Mahama said, but added that: “…I’m asking us to go one step further. With every piece of clothing we wear, with every item of food we prepare for our meals, with every single thing we use, let us ask ourselves, ‘how much of this is made in Ghana and even importantly, if it was not made in Ghana, let’s ask ourselves, ‘could it have been made in Ghana?’

“But if you ask yourself, could it have been made in Ghana and the answer is ‘yes’, then for the love of this country, our country, start thinking of ways in which we can transform our society and our economy by making it happen”, President Mahama urged.

The president said supporting Ghanaian products will greatly help strengthen Ghana’s economy.

“We cannot allow our destiny to be determined by corporations, industries or individuals or exist beyond our national borders and that is precisely what we are doing when the majority of what we consume come from outside.

“It is precisely what we are doing when all that we export are raw materials extracted from the earth. The days when our very worth was based on natural and mineral resources must be a thing of the past. Yes, its true God has blessed Ghana richly with gold, bauxite, timber and now oil but as I’ve said many times before and will continue to maintain, Ghana’s greatest resource is its people”.