. He was a special guest at the 70th Anniversary of Opoku Ware School last weekend
. Dr Amoah says China and other Asian countries have proven that Africa can also succeed
Business mogul Dr Kofi Amoah has delivered what can be described as one of his most poignant speeches in recent memory.
Over the weekend, Dr Amoah was a special guest at the 70th Anniversary of Opoku Ware School, Kumasi, and he used his speech to admonish the new generation of Ghanaians to break the cycle of dependency on foreign aid to ensure Ghana becomes a prosperous nation in the foreseeable future.
According to the former GFA Normalization Committee president, the notion that smartness, advancement, intelligence, development and by extension wealth creation is a preserve of only the white man should be banished into the bin of history.
Addressing the students and other dignitaries present at the anniversary, he said: “The most insidious aspect of this global dichotomy of HAVES and HAVENOTS is the psychological mindset created that the developed countries were inhabited by a smarter, more intelligent people and that the people in the Less Developed or Undeveloped countries were less smart and less intelligent.
“Frankly, after a century of this dichotomy, the Undeveloped Countries themselves began to accept their fate…. Until some of the newly independent states, largely in Asia, began to show significant growth in their GDPs.
This improvement in the economic and social status of China and the Asia Tigers (Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc.) has slowly but gradually eroded the perception that only the West (Certain white people) possesses the smarts and intelligence to create healthy and expansive economies and societies”.
Dr Amoah, an old student of Opoku Ware encouraged the young men and women to believe that everything is possible if one puts his mind to it. He used his own rise as a village boy to international prominence in the field of business as a testament of what is doable with the right mindset.
“We must become a part of the resurgent ex-colonial countries of Asia, with the new courage and smarts to think and do for self and finally jettison the colonial mindsets that continue to blind us and function like an iron curtain blocking our entry into affluence, modernity and enhanced standard of living for our people.
We need a Blue Print for Ghana with a determined mindset change from dependency to “Can Do and Must Do!”
The present set of mindset and belief systems of Ghanaians, affect our decisions in many critical areas, our sense of confidence or lack of thereof, investments and borrowing decisions, choice of contractors and… all these and others collectively exert a significant impact on our economic and social well-being”.
He concluded by imploring politicians with an insatiable appetite for borrowing to rather focus on creating jobs for the many young men and women who have no meaningful employment.
“Natural resource abundance alone is not sufficient condition for fast-track economic development. A less resource-endowed nation with the proper mindset and determination for progress can outtake and zoom past a resource-rich nation with a negative mindset, lack of confidence, largely dependent on imports, loans and grants whilst her able-bodied Youth remain jobless.”
Dr Amoah has been an advocate of providing jobs for the masses and has often described the employment situation in the country as a ticking time bomb that could explode at any time. Read Full Story
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