Principal of Jackson College of Education has said the country must learn a great lesson from the devastating impact that the Covid-19 is having on world economies.

Theodosia Jackson said Ghana must take advantage and build a robust economy that hinges on industrialisation.

She said the pandemic has brought to fore, the importance of supporting indigenous companies to produce more instead of importing virtually everything for local consumption.

She cited economic powers like the United Kingdom and other European countries that have started taking steps to cut down imports from China by embarking on local production of certain essentials following the pandemic.

This, she said, should inspire Ghana to take the bold step to permanently fix our economy and wean the country off foreign aid.

“We cannot continue to import everything we need as a country. It is important to empower our factories to meet our local needs and even export the surplus for foreign exchange”, she opined.

She expressed grave concern about how the textile industry is collapsing all because their products are being duplicated by Chinese companies in connivance with some unpatriotic Ghanaians.

“We must rise up and fight for our own industries so we can collectively build an independent nation with a buoyant economy”, the emotionally charged Mrs. Jackson, advised.

She is of the firm belief that given the concomitant effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the world economy, it is anticipated that hardly will any donor nation dole out aids to us Ghanaians or any other developing nation.

In this light, she advised that the nation takes pragmatic and proactive measures to embark on aggressive industrialization to produce goods that are consumed by our compatriots locally but are imported from abroad.

She said, it is irresponsible for Ghanaians to conspire with other nationals to collapse the textile industry which was not only vibrant but also provided a lot of direct and indirect jobs for our compatriots.

The Chinese, according to her, have also rendered most printing companies in the country redundant as common exercise and note books are printed in China notwithstanding the fact that local companies have the capacity to do the same job.

Mrs. Jackson therefore appealed to policy makers to consider the introduction of stimulus packages to support local industries to beat off competition from foreign firms which have taken over their businesses.

Such a policy would feed into the President’s Ghana Beyond Aid initiative since it would boost the economy and make the country less dependent on foreign aid, she stated.

She said Covid-19 would leave in its trail, a bitter lesson for various countries across the globe and stressed the need for Ghana to come out strongly with viable economic policies that can withstand any shock going forward.