Ghana needs a strong and productive economy that is industrialised to create an avenue for more local production than importation, the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) has said.

Speaking at a Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast meeting on Wednesday, the Greater Accra President of AGI noted that currently, the nation is consuming too much imported products – and this has largely contributed to the current state of the economy.

Tsonam Akpeloo stressed that productive measures must be put in place by the government to lessen the harsh conditions industry players face in their daily activities.

“About 70% of everything we use in Ghana are imported. What we need now is to have a strong, productive economy that is highly industrialised that allows citizens to participate in production, where we consume what we produce.”

“In fact, a lot of our folks are entrepreneurial but the realities are that the entrepreneurial environment is so harsh that sometimes it becomes almost impossible to be able to produce,” he noted.

Mr Akpeloo also mentioned that another reason the country is facing an economic downturn is because everything seems to be highly politicised.

“Even for us in industry, it’s a daily struggle of having to try hard to depoliticise ourselves from the system of politicking. So, everything you are doing is viewed in all of these lenses so much so that the real work, the real productive sector that will take us out of this challenge is secondary, not basic.”

Currently, the high cost of credit has made it expensive “in this town” to borrow from financial institutions to support business growth.

“It is a reason most of the locally manufactured products are pricy. Ghanaians have developed a taste for consuming imported products,” Tsonam Akpeloo added.

The Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting was under the discussion, ‘IMF: 17 times too!’