Job Creation, Poverty Alleviation, The Ambitions That Never Arrived Home Safely

Written by Konongo Fordjour

Ghana has huge number of her citizens resident abroad. A rough assessment gives about 2.8 million Ghanaians - legal and illegal - residing in the USA alone. Juxtaposed with Canada and mainly Brazil in the south, the two Americas and their islands could easily record 3.5 million of our dear brethren with an annual expenditure of their incomes in the region of US$50-billion - a mere 10% of all African-American annual expenditure of US$500-billion (Forbes, 2007 report). Western Europe also registers a significant number of Ghanaians resident there. Adding Asia to Western Europe can also easily record a modest 1.5 million Ghanaians in the two regions. In total, a whooping 5-million Ghanaians could be residing outside the country. Interestingly, Ghanaian missions around the globe do not have accurate statistics to advice the home government on potential investment policy covering the Ghanaian in the Diaspora.

The sad thing is that about 65% of this figure is illegal - without proper documents - to reside in their host countries. Hence many of our own are subjected to fear of deportation that can cause embarrassment, ridicule, disgrace and a possible suicide, if they find themselves back home after a long stay overseas with nothing to account for. Consequently, many Ghanaians overseas settle for many menial jobs that can pay for their rent, food, clothing, and savings to arrange for marriage papers that will eventually settle them down. The marriage process alone can take an average of eight years to get the Ghanaian relaxed in overseas at an average price of US$30,000 including all other incidental costs. Therefore many Ghanaians grow past their useful age with menial jobs before making headway for any meaningful development in overseas.

However, a large number of the illegal is highly educated with at least a first degree from home. Many settle for home care live-in, driving mini-cabs, in the North-East USA, and key-job cleaning with a combination of security services in Europe. The good news is that our lads make huge sums of money, but the bad news is that they cannot save their incomes in the banks in their host countries for two reasons. One, most of them use different names from their own, and can lock their moneys in the banks and eventually confiscated by the banks. And two, withdrawing their own savings from the banks exposes them to possible deportations. Therefore many of them choose to save their moneys in their own pockets. A very dangerous option!

We shall dwell on the dilemmas facing the illegal Ghanaian in overseas. During the author’s research study at Europe’s most prestigious Small Business Research Centre at Kingston University in West of London-England, a Ghanaian dead body was bumped onto at Bethnal-Green underground tube station. Apparently, the young man had met his untimely death through acute ulcers out of starvation and lack of sleep. Seven-Up, a coca-cola brand drink, with two Turkish short-bread was found with him as his left-over from the previous dinner. Police search on the dead body found 135,000 pounds sterling that was never returned to the family members. Another instance at the Bank tube station also found another Ghanaian dead body. The young man had lived in London for more than nine years as a shoe-shiner-cum-cleaner and had a saving of 165,000 pounds sterling at Nat-West Bank. The sad thing here is that, the young man used someone-else’s name and national insurance number (NI) to work. Unfortunately, the real person for the banking transactions had also passed away earlier and buried in Tamale, Northern Ghana. As a typical British thievery, the National-Westminster Bank confiscated the money.

A similar case like the Bethnal-Green one has just occurred in New Jersey, USA. A young Legon product died on his 92-year-old client he was supposed to look after. The old woman, instead, called police to go and take care of the dead body. At least US$35,000 was found in the dead body’s pocket. Another one from KNUST is in the mortuary and ready to be buried in Worcester, Massachusetts-USA after contracting an incurable disease from his home-care live-in workplace. Because of his illegality to sojourn in the USA, his next-of-kin cannot claim for any form of compensations. But the real question is: How about his actual money made over the years totaling around US$250,000?

There are millions of similar cases of this kind in so many places around the world. What is our government doing? Perhaps the government should not shoulder all the blame. Our belligerent parliament, which is quick in declaring war against sovereign nations, is equally worth some portion of the blame. Our MPs wouldn’t entertain a discussion of this nature because a rich Ghanaian from overseas is a threat to their God-given nine-to-five job offer in parliament. The parliamentary experience proponents like Hackman Owusu-Agyemang and Asawase Mubarak would simply shelf off such a progressive demand. If Dr. Annor can easily be silenced by MP experienced Hackman, then our Lord of mercy should have mercy upon Mercy Oppong in New Juaben Koforidua. Thank God, J B Danquah-Adu has finally been put to perpetual sleep for the people’s choice, Dr. Amoako, to match on. If Osei-Wusu of Bekwai and Osei-Tutu of Konongo are going solo, then what is Annor sitting down there doing? Get up and take the fight right to Hackman’s doorstep. We need progressive men and women in parliament to carry on with our programs in the country to benefit our people. Sitting down there and making noise would not help anybody. Fight on, brother!

In September 2000, the then presidential candidate J A Kufuor visited London for a rally of NPP supporters at Green Lanes. The author posed a question to Mr. Kufuor during the question-and-answer time that: Sir, what would be your three top priorities in your term of office, if you won the elections? Well the answers given like stabilizing the cedi, micro-economic stability, etc. were not satisfactory to the author, and he in turn reversed the same question to the author that: Assuming you were in J A Kufuor’s position, what would have been your three top priorities?

The author welcomed the challenge and offered his three top priorities as: Job creation to reduce poverty; Building road network to interconnect neighboring countries; and Creating a powerful tax collection system to improve the nation’s finance system. Dissecting them one after the other, first, job creation using Ghanaians money other than that of the Paris club that will haunt the future generation with repayment burdens is worth the consideration. The business of government is not in the business of creating government jobs for the populace. It is rather the provision of the rare supervisory role to help the citizens to create jobs.

Small business is one strategic tool in causing Ghanaians to create jobs for Ghanaians. For instance, the government can create data of investments in each and every district to expose the potential investments good for that particular district. Forget about the too much noise made about tourism and job creation. A good economy is not the one built on tourism, because tourism brings end results, i.e. the population becomes subservient and dependent on hotel visitor tips and handouts. The economic model of equity, engineering or manufacturing economy, and economy of entrepreneurs with tax-breaks or concessions are the characteristics of a strong modern economic development. Let us use Asante-Akyem North Constituency as an example. We can talk about quarry, cement production, orange processing, corn-meal processing, chocolate and other cocoa products processing, and so forth. Then assess the plant and equipment cost, labour, and the advice government can offer.

Armed with these details, the government would be ready to sell the idea to Ghanaians in the Diaspora. For instance, if a Ghanaian can afford say US$450,000, a medium-size orange processing plant can be his or hers, supervised by government free for a year and with a six-year tax free incentive. Each plant must employ at least fifty workers. Given ten of orange processing plants in Asante-Akyem North and ten other kinds of plants in all the other constituencies, we are set to increase ten by 230 by fifty (115,000) workers in the economy. Government is also eased with $450,000 by ten by 230 (US$1,035,000,000 or US$1.035-billion) from nowhere injected into the economy. This is much better than a dream of securing a 547-million-dollar Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). One constituency can have ten each of other types of investments that can increase the workforce and produce an astronomical national income.

The government can also assist in the distribution and sale of the products to neighbouring West African states, entire African region and/or the rest of the world to motivate continuous production. Top of the line consultancy on Ghana shows that salt production will sell quick, orange squeezing will sell fast; cement production is a hot cake, warehousing is extremely important, and so forth. Citizens that create jobs through their own small business money are better citizens in terms of financial handling than those that are pampered with government secured loans from elsewhere and forced on them to do business. A case in point is the Gun-man Jerry Rawlings’ NDC faulty strategy of money to its members like Nana Konadu-Agyemang Rawlings business in Nsawam cannery that has gone sour. We probably will have to leave our comfort zones and work a little bit hard. Job-creation-by-citizenry can eradicate joblessness and poverty at a blink of an eye. The dying youth of shoe-shiners, tube-station cleaners, home-care live-ins, mini-cab drivers, watchmen and watchwomen, etc. can channel their incomes through a well planned and ambitious government programs targeting them.

Second, road building that is on-going in the country is one of the goodwill for our government. It will connect with our neighbouring countries that will improve transportation of our products to them for consumption. Highways across all the corners of Ghana can easily stabilize the rural folks in their own towns and villages because jobs created by small businesses can be found there. Goods and services can reach the market at the shortest possible time. The author can even stay in his comfort mansion in Konongo and do business in Abidjan and Mali. The national income acquired through the small business investments, and also through other sources such as taxes, mining, internal revenue services, world donors, the incoming oil money, etc. can be channeled and/or focused on building schools, hospitals, roads, water, housing, air-sea-and-road transport, internal security, social services, etc. There isn’t much to say here because our government is doing exactly what the author had prioritized some eight years ago. Good job, Your Excellency!

However, the third priority, which is the country’s strategy in collecting money for the national development projects, is still poor. Hon Yaw Safo-Maafo initiated a good method with street addresses to collect taxes but that has been abandoned by the good-for-nothing and lazy MP Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu of Asante-Akyem North Constituency. Koo Baah also lacks the specially needed multi-task skills in him. Many of our businesses operate under the table. They evade taxes so easily. Foreign business people jump in and out so easily with their business taxes without the observation of our officials. The creation of small business jobs will assist the government with company addresses, sites, projected taxes based on their annual incomes and possible expansions that will improve the national tax-collection system.

In conclusion, our government has performed marvelously, no question about that, but the real hit in the ordinary person in the street is jerky. The strategy to alleviate poverty, diseases, hanger and ignorance from our folks did not sail through. Our government was hypnotized with cheap but expensive money from the Paris club and the MCA that are going to haunt us in the future and did not concentrate on the small business job creation strategy. Now we have tried the peanut butter soup and we know how it tastes; can we try palm nut soup and see how it will taste? The author trusts that the alternative will be a better choice. The incoming oil money should not have too much pressure on it. Please let us leave the jobs to Ghanaians to create them through small businesses.

After the Green Lanes gathering, the president had Lady Elizabeth Ohene write the author’s name down for further consultations that never happened anyway. But somehow the practical implementation of the strategy kicked off with the establishment of a small business administration with a certain Mr. Akwasi Prempeh chosen to overseer it, and the whole idea died out slowly over time. The ministry of Trade and Industry under Hon Alan Kyerematen made some attempts to resuscitate it with the so-called presidential strategic initiatives (PSI) and with the MCA funds and that also signaled a wrong move. The problem with our governments is bulldozing through national developments with unskilled personalities and uninformed ministers to earn credits.

Please use the idea champions for this kind of program. The job-creation-by-citizenry through small business is the only method that can work. It is hassle-free, with no government funds wasted, and the entrepreneurs taking concerned decisions for their own destinies. Government must not force investments on the people, let them do it by themselves. Please save our dying youth from the harsh western conditions. The next government should look into this seriously and should not be deceived that the incoming oil money would solve all our problems. Oil money has not helped many of the oil-rich countries that much, like Venezuela, Sudan, Nigeria, Gabon, Equatorial-Guinea, Angola, etc. They have been baffled instead. Therefore Ghana must not be swollen-headed with oil money and all its curses. Let us concentrate on the small business job-creation-by-citizenry strategy, and surely together, we will definitely succeed. Cheers!

Konongo Fordjour

Global Analytica

E-mail: koafordjour@yahoo.com