Leader of the New Force movement, Nana Kwame Bediako has said that even though the Year of Return was a good project initiated by the incumbent government, not much was done to utilise the platform properly.

He applauded the government for the Year of Return project because it promoted Ghana massively.

However, according to him, the government failed to utilize it effectively to attract foreigners to stay and invest in the country.

“They promoted the country very well. However, it was just based on festivities. The Year of Return and Beyond the Return were all good projects.”

He further explained that even though many people visited the country, their focus was on creating fun memories because the government failed to create a system where foreigners would be able to invest their last capital into businesses in the country to boost the economy.

“They didn’t turn it into a business support because when the people came they celebrated for two weeks and afterwards they didn’t have anything substantial that convinced them to leave their last investment in this country so they just left,” he said.

He added that if the Year of Return was to last for a longer period instead of the usual two weeks, the revenue generated would be enough to sustain the economy.

“Even if it was to go on for 3 months you would see a lot of avenues for revenues and returns. They come and buy things here; it circulates and they leave. That’s a vacuum economy.”

He further explained that because the foreigners do not see the need to invest in the country, they take away from the country things that are of good value like human resources and take them to their countries.

“They also take things back with them. They take your arts, and your human resources because they are not staying and investing. So they take anything that has potential.”

He also shared that he is going to “create an enabling system that would attract foreigners from other countries to come, stay and invest in the country to boost our economy.”

“I am talking about a system that would make someone move here and work for Ghanaians for about 30 years and not celebrate and leave. Because if you have a million of those people in the country, you will have a very strong economy,” he concluded.