The Executive Secretary of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Dr Prince Hamid Armah has suggested that the outbreak of Covid-19 should serve as a wakeup call, especially to industries and other institutions against similar future events.
According to him, although the government is doing everything possible to support the citizens and the likes to grow amid the pandemic, local firms must position themselves to compete and meet local demands.
He noted that the Covid-19 is a crisis that has exposed countries of their weaknesses, especially how it has forced them to close their borders and shut off interaction with each other.
This, he said: “So when eventually we are able to shake hands again – assuming we will – we will need to recalibrate much more than our social conduct.”
Dr Armah who is also the parliamentary candidate for the New Patriotic Party in Kwesimintsim in the Western Region, said industry are to rise to the call because the Covid-19 has exposed challenges of Ghana’s continuous over relying on foreign imports.
Over relying on foreign imports had crippled many local firms that are unable to compete and as a result have folded up or reduced capacity, which by itself have it own economic implications.
The NaCCA boss in a statement he issued recently noted “while our deindustrialisation had been on a march even before that, local conditions and global progress have accelerated our slide in manufacturing and even agriculture to the point where we have to import nearly everything.”
According to him, this is worrying since overdependence on foreign production is not just economically imprudent, therefore, a national security threat.
His concern was that a sovereign nation that is entirely reliant on conditions in other countries for its basic needs is setting itself up for crisis and exactly what Ghana nearly found herself when struck by Covid-19 struck.
“We found ourselves at the mercy of price gougers, looking to extract the last possible penny for a bottle of hand sanitizer. With our ports shut and no imports coming, however, an amazing thing has happened. Local ingenuity and enterprise has stepped in to protect us from our bad decisions.
“To their credit, liquor manufacturers utilised their production units and raw materials to help meet the demand for hand sanitizers. Local dress makers and tailors as well as others with the capacity, are providing nose masks. We have seen thrilling innovation from people around the country who are crafting hand washing and sanitisation devices fit for our peculiar no-contact moment,” he stated.
He said at a higher level the Kwame Nkrumah University for Science Technology developed a ventilator and team up with local firm, INCAS to produce a rapid test kit for easy diagnosis of Covid-19 infections.
The post Covid-19 must bring out Ghanaians’ ingenuity- NaCCA appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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