Ghanaian economist and professor of Finance at the country’s premier university, Godfred Bokpin has asserted that Ghana is no longer noted as the leading agricultural country in West Africa.
He is of the opinion that Ghana has now become a service country because of its high importation of goods.
The professor made this submission at the 3Business Economic Sustainability Summit on 4th April, 2023 in Accra which was monitored 1Family Radio.
According to Prof. Bokpin, the country now depends greatly on retail and wholesale services which has led to the increment of unemployment in the country while generating jobs for other countries.
“Since Independence, Ghana was noted for agriculture but as at now we have lost this identity. Ghana is now known for service but the big question is, is this country really a service-based economy?’’ he quizzed.
He furthered that the answer to the above question is no because every country which has a service-based economy has a matured economy because it has gone through the process which includes agriculture, industry and then service.
Prof. Bokpin however hinted that our economy is not mature for service yet because right from agriculture, which was a major contributor to the country’s GDP, we went to service skipping industry.
“The service sector is really not a quality service because it heavily operates on importation which is retail and wholesale.’’
“The moment the service sector of a country starts leading in the area of importation, that country the level of unemployment increases,’’ he added.
Source: 1Familyradio