Let’s again ape the west...of Africa!

When earnest chemists from a sub-Saharan country produce medicines at prices that its citizens can afford to buy, the world may not blink; but when the same country ends up producing 150 top selling export worthy items for the global markets, the world not only blinks, but starts stammering too. Ghana, a country having almost $7 billion internal debt, 15.1% inflation and a current account deficit of $790 million, has set ample evidence of the same.

World Bank data shows that Ghana has got ranked 94th in terms of ‘ease of doing business’, which means that it is not only much ahead than other sub-Saharan countries like Burkina Faso (163rd), Togo (151st), Niger (160th), but most surprisingly, also far ahead than the world’s second fastest growing developing country India (134th). The ‘Index of Economic Freedom’ similarly ranks Ghana at 91 out of 157 countries that were surveyed. Ghana was positioned 34th of 168 countries in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index, which was far ahead than several African, Asian and even European developing countries. Transparency International ranked Ghana 70th best out of 163 countries when it comes to tackling corruption. The eulogies are unending.

Ghana was the first independent country in Africa, which even achieved an extremely stable political atmosphere after the multiparty elections in 1992. Giving to the world leaders like former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Ghana has attained commendable growth. And the secret of all this is that Ghana has been fanatical in prioritising the basic needs of human development over the objective of economic development. And the dividends? Ghana has achieved almost 5.9% economic growth, 10.11 million job creation and blossoming exports at $2.911 billion. Ghana presents itself as an example to several military ruled and poverty stricken countries in the neighbourhood of Africa, and also across the world. For a change, let’s again ape the west...of Africa – Ghana!