The president of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has issued a passionate call for more than political assurances in the wake of the United States’ imposition of a 10% tariff on Ghanaian exports, including cocoa.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, Dr Humprey Ayim Darke questioned Ghana’s capacity to respond meaningfully to such external economic shocks, insisting that declarations of intent must be matched by structural action.

“To the extent of the assurance, you need to also internalise it and look at the risk element as an entity,” he said, arguing that while optimism is welcome, it cannot replace the practical steps required to build internal resilience.

Referring to the 10% tariff slapped by the U.S. on key Ghanaian exports, he described it as a stark reminder that “external factors…are beyond your control. That’s why I call it external factors.”

He stressed that no matter the confidence projected by leadership, a nation must be equipped to weather such storms.

Dr Ayim Darke revealed that during a recent engagement with government officials, “there was this optimistic assurance that, look, we can recalibrate and restructure the economy to take advantage of it. Yes, it is possible.”

But he quickly tempered this optimism with realism: “The case of COVID showed us one clear example. However, how did we execute the fallout of COVID? How did we deliberately promote local manufacturing companies as a fallout of COVID?”

He pointed out that while some progress was made, “How many companies can it count out beyond that?”

This, he suggested, is proof that Ghana often struggles to transition from rhetoric to action when it comes to industrial transformation.

“There are other obstacles in these structural reforms to build internal capacity,” he warned, lamenting the slow pace of implementation even in sectors where enabling policies exist.

“We even have a local content law… and ECG was so cooperative to encourage meter assembling plants to come to Ghana to take advantage of the local content. But beyond that, then you need to go interrogate, how far have they been successful over the years?”

Dr Ayim Darke questioned the repetition of policy promises without meaningful outcomes, noting that Ghana’s industrial base remains import-heavy.

“Recovery couldn’t take advantage of the situation to industrialise. The structure of the economy is still highly dominant with imports.”

As the nation marks its so-called “Liberation Day,” the AGI President offered a sober reality check.

“If COVID couldn’t give a start reawakening to correct issues, and we could see such mistakes still are reoccurring, what is the probability that we could take our destiny into our hands, even with this Liberation Day declaration?”