Independent presidential candidate Dr Sam Ankrah has said that government cannot solely shoulder the responsibility of moving the country from importation to production and industrialisation.

Speaking on PM Express on JoyNews, he explained that for the country to produce and export more, there should be an environment that encourages private sector participation.

Referencing one of government's flagship programme; One District One Factory (1D1F), Dr Ankrah said that "a government cannot keep establishing companies or taking businesses away from the private sector. If you talk about enabling the environment for industries, it's not a government building factories."

He noted that "what you do is create the environment the private sector will be attracted to invest in. You can have a land today and in the next two years, somebody else is taking ownership. The court has made the ruling and it has gone to somebody else. So these are the things that need to be sorted out."

The independent presidential candidate said that if there is a proper legal framework, government structures and a continuous fight against corruption, it will help establish an environment that would attract these businesses. 

“Investments, most of them would not come locally, but once the systems are in place, it attracts the investor to come into the country. And that is what you can talk about, having industrialisation,” he said.

Dr Ankrah indicated that this, coupled with having good policies that favour Ghanaians, will help build a strong local economy.

“We are giving everything out as a nation. We talk about the resources and we are poor. We need to be able to sit down, be selfless, think about our people and find policies that would suit our economy. We need to build an economy for Ghanaians so that we can accommodate our people and make sure their lifestyles change.”