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7-Year
Development Plan - Presentation
BLUE PRINT OF OUR GOAL -LAUNCHING THE SEVEN-YEAR DEVELOPMENT
PLAN
Kwame Nkrumah
11th March, 1964
I have come here today to present to you, and to the people
of Ghana, our Seven-Year Development Plan, which when
completed, will bring Ghana to the threshold of a modem
State based on a highly organised and efficient agricultural
and industrial programme.
The main tasks of the Plan are: firstly, to speed up the
rate of growth of our national economy. Secondly, it is to
enable us to embark upon the socialist transformation of our
economy through the rapid development of the State and
cooperative sectors. Thirdly, it is our aim, by this Plan,
to eradicate completely the colonial structure of our
economy. On this occasion, let me take the opportunity here
and now to thank all those experienced men and women,
Ghanaians and non Ghanaians, who have contributed so much to
the preparation of this Plan.
Mr. Speaker, when the Convention People’s Party came to
power in 1951, the pace of development was so slow and
confused that we decided to speed it up by attempting to
implement in five years, the programme of reconstruction
which was designed by the colonial administration to take
place over a period of ten years. That programme was not a
development plan. It was a collection of various individual
petty projects that had to be built in preparation for
future planning.
At the conclusion of this programme, it became necessary to
pause for two years in order to consolidate our position. By
the time we reached the stage of implementing the next phase
of our programme, it had already become quite clear to us
that the only real solution to the reconstruction of Ghana
lay in the long run, in the adoption of a socialist and
cooperative programme for industry, and the mechanisation
and diversification of our agriculture. Our hopes in this
regard lay in the Volta River Project, about which 1 will
have more to say later on.
Mr. Speaker, this Seven-Year Development Plan which 1 now
lay before you is therefore the first really integrated and
comprehensive economic plan ever drawn up for Ghana’s
development after a thorough examination of our needs and
resources. The Plan is designed to give effect to the
Party’s Programme of Work and Happiness which has already
been accepted by the country. It also embodies a long view
of the path which should lead to a self-sustaining economy,
based on socialist production and distribution. An economy
balanced between industry and agriculture, providing a
sufficiency of food for the people, and supporting secondary
industries based on the products of our agriculture. In
other words, an economy founded securely on the basis of
socialist production and distribution.
Our aim, under this Plan, is to build in Ghana, a socialist
State which accepts full responsibility for promoting the
well-being of the masses. Our national wealth must be built
up and used in such a way that economic power shall not be
allowed to exploit the worker in town or village, but be
used for the supreme welfare and happiness of our people.
The people, through the State, should have an effective
share in the economy of the country and an effective control
over it.
A socialist Ghana must also secure for every citizen, at the
earliest possible date, an adequate level of education and
nutrition and a satisfactory standard of clothing, housing
and leisure.
The Party has always proclaimed socialism as the objective
of our social, industrial and economic programmes.
Socialism, however, will continue to remain a slogan until
industrialisation is achieved. Socialism demands a very
different kind of planning and economic structure from the
type that was evolved by the colonial administration. This
is why in l96l, we set up a Planning Commission and charged
it with the responsibility for drawing up this Development
Plan which I present to you today as an instalment in the
process by which we hope to turn Ghana into the sort of
country we envisage.
A socialist State cannot come by itself nor can it be
established by the formulation of plans. Socialism has to be
worked for and even sacrificed for. Socialism, which is
aimed at the emancipation of the people from exploitation,
has to be built by the people. It is the expression of the
people whose Government accepts responsibility for promoting
their welfare to the fullest possible extent.
Our youth from the primary schools, through the secondary
schools to the universities and higher institutions of
learning, should and must be taught and trained in the
socialist philosophy. They must be taught to know the
working of neo-colonialism and trained to recognise it
wherever it may rear its head. They must not only know the
trappings of colonialism and imperialism, but they must also
be able to smell out the hide-outs of neo-colonialism.
In this endeavour, we shall expect from each citizen, a
maximum contribution to the national economy according to
his ability and training. It is only in proportion to the
contribution which each of us makes to the work of the
Nation that we can expect to share in the material gains
which the socialist development of the economy will make
possible.
Mr. Speaker, in order to accomplish our objectives, we have
decided that the economy of Ghana will, for some time to
come, remain a mixed economy in which a vigorous public and
cooperative sector will operate along with the private
sector. Let me make it clear that our socialist objectives
demand that the public and cooperative sector of the
productive economy should expand at the maximum possible
rate, especially in those strategic areas of production upon
which the economy of the country essentially depends.
We are determined that the economic independence of Ghana
shall be achieved and maintained so as to avoid the social
antagonisms resulting from the unequal distribution of
economic power. We are equally determined to ensure that the
operation of a mixed economy leads to the socialist
transformation we envisage, and not to the defeat of our
socialist aims. It is essential, therefore, that we should
remind ourselves at all times of the necessity;
• Firstly, to promote to the maximum, the development of the
State and cooperative sectors;
• secondly, to regulate the pattern of State investment in
order to give the highest priority to productive investment,
and
• Thirdly, to determine and direct the forms and conditions
of foreign investment, in order to safeguard our socialist
policy and national independence.
In this way, we shall ensure that the growth rate of the
public and cooperative sector of our economy will exceed the
growth rate of the private, sector, particularly in industry
and agriculture.
Mr. Speaker, as you know, we have already established many
industrial projects and enterprises, as a means of securing
our economic independence and assisting in the national
control of the economy. I must make it clear that these
State Enterprises were not set up to lose money at the
expense of the tax payers. Like all business undertakings,
they are expected to maintain themselves efficiency, and to
show profits. Such profits should be sufficient to build up
capital for further investment as well as to finance a large
proportion of the public services which it is the
responsibility of the State to provide.
In every socialist country, state enterprises provide the
bulk of State revenues, and we intend to follow the same
pattern here. Our State Enterprises will be set yearly,
financial and production targets so that they may work
towards definite objectives and goals and thereby given
every stimulus to operate efficiently and profitably. Hence,
the managers of our State Enterprises, and those in charge
of our State organisations and apparatus should be men
trained in management; honest and dedicated men; men with
integrity; men who are incorruptible.
When we have succeeded in establishing these principles,
Government will then be in a position to lower taxes
progressively, to lessen steadily the burden of taxation on
the people and eventually to abolish many of them, if not
all of them.
I have set up a State Management Committee to bring these
ideas to life and to help in building up strong, well
managed, efficient and profitable State enterprises.
I intend, however, that the State Management Committee shall
do more than that. I want to ensure that the people of this
country are fully informed of Government’s intentions and
plans, particularly with regard to industrialisation and
agriculture. The people have every right to be fully
informed in order that they may know what our objectives
are, what progress we are making and how Government funds
are being spent in the interest of this country’s economic
development.
I am convinced that with this knowledge will come that
understanding which will give our people the necessary
impetus to do all they can to help achieve our objectives
for work and happiness and accelerated development.
Mr. Speaker, foreign investment as the private sector of our
industrial development can play an important role in our
economy. It has a valuable contribution to make to our
economy and to the attainment of certain specific
objectives. Among these will be production of consumer
goods, the local processing of Ghanaian raw material and the
utilization of Ghana’s natural resources in those lines of
economic activity where a large volume of investment is
required.
We expect, however, that such investments will not be
operated so as to exploit our people. On the contrary, we
expect such enterprises to assist in the expansion of the
economy of the country in line with our general objectives.
Foreign investment enterprises will contribute personal
initiative, managerial ability and technical skills towards
the development of the country. They will also further the
growth of similar initiative, ability, technical skills and
habits of saving among Ghanaians.
We welcome foreign investors in a spirit of partnership.
They can earn their profits here, provided they leave us an
agreed portion for promoting the welfare and happiness of
our people as a whole as against the greedy ambitions of the
few. From what we get out of this partnership, we hope to be
able to expand the health services of our people, to feed
and house them well, to give them more and better
educational institutions and to see to it that they have a
rising standard of living. This in a nutshell is what we
expect from our socialist objectives.
Mr. Speaker, in pursuing these objectives, we shall exert
our efforts towards the maximum extension of the public
sector within the productive economy. As I have said, within
this framework, we do not intend or desire to limit private
investment.
Our Government has always insisted that the operations of
all economic enterprises in Ghana should conform to the
national economic objectives and be subject to the rules and
regulations which are made in pursuance of our socialist
policies. Our experience has been that foreign investors
have been willing to invest in Ghana so long as the limits
within which they can work are fair and clearly defined, and
we shall continue to consult with them in order to ensure
that cooperation is as full as possible.
Ghana’s economy, particularly at the present stage, has room
for all the investment capital which is likely to be
provided by foreign investors, by the Central and Local
Governments and by individual Ghanaians. In this respect, l
believe that there are a considerable number of individual
Ghanaians who are in a position materially to assist in
finding the necessary capital for the Seven-Year Development
Plan.
One of the worst features of colonialism was that it
produced an unbalanced economy in which there was little
room for investment of the profits which were made by
expatriate firms. In colonial days, it was natural that
profits made in Ghana should be invested abroad. Today, the
situation is entirely different. An investor who lays out
his money wisely in Ghana is likely to make a larger profit,
than if he invested it in a more developed country.
Nevertheless, old habits of investment persist and there are
a considerable number of Ghanaians who still maintain their
savings in foreign investments and in property outside
Ghana.
Under our Exchange Control laws, it is of course, illegal
for Ghanaians to have property abroad without having
declared this to the appropriate authorities. This aspect of
our law is not always understood. The Government has
therefore decided not to penalise any Ghanaian firm or
individual who, within the next three months, repatriates
foreign holdings of money to Ghana, or who declares
ownership of foreign property. A thorough investigation is
afoot to discover the extent of holdings of foreign exchange
and properties by Ghanaians, and those who do not take
advantage of this offer, but continues to conceal their
foreign assets, must expect, after the three-month period of
grace, to be subject to the full rigours of the law.
Mr. Speaker, the Seven-Year Development Plan makes
provisions for a maximum volume of investment from all
sources. We intend that the State should retain control of
the strategic branches of the economy, including public
utilities, raw materials and heavy industry. The State will
also participate in light and consumer goods industries in
which the rates of return on capital should be highest. We
intend also that those industries which provide the basic
living needs of the people shall be State-owned, in order to
prevent any exploitation.
Mr. Speaker, Members of the National Assembly, let me now
turn to the specific proposals of the Seven-Year Plan. In
the next seven years, it is proposed that there will be a
total expenditure of one-thousand and sixteen million
pounds, that is, over a billion pounds sterling, on
development projects in the Plan. Of this total, it is
intended that four-hundred and seventy-six million pounds
should be provided by the Central Government foreign
investors, individual Ghanaians, Local Authorities and the
Cooperative sector are expected to invest about four-hundred
and forty million pounds. We also hope that individual
Ghanaians will contribute nearly one-hundred million pounds
worth of direct labour in the construction of buildings, in
community development and in the extension of their farms.
The total government investment will be four-hundred and
seventy-six million pounds. Investment throughout the
Seven-Year Plan period will average one-hundred and thirty
million pounds a year. Of this, approximately one half, or
sixty-six million pounds a year, will be invested by
Government, and the rest by private investors.
We continue to look to the outside world to contribute to
our national development. We expect the more advanced and
industrialised countries to facilitate our trade in primary
commodities and manufactured goods so that we can finance
the bulk of our development out of our own resources and
earnings.
We hope that where necessary, the Government of Ghana will
be able to borrow money on reasonable terms for essential
and productive projects. Let me say again that we welcome
foreign investors to come and invest in Ghana’s progress. We
offer them every assistance, substantial material benefits,
and the advantages of a coherent long-term economic strategy
which will give them plenty of scope for planning and
development. At the same time, we expect them to re-invest
an adequate share of their profits in the further progress,
both of Ghana and of themselves.
In order to be able to manage these new investments as well
as our existing capital with the maximum of efficiency, the
country needs a well-trained labour force under competent
management. In this sense, the educational programme under
the Plan is crucial to the success of the whole Plan. It is
directed towards giving education .in Ghana a new and more
practical orientation and making it available to all who can
profit by it. In order to make real economic progress, Ghana
must adopt an improved technology in all lines of
production. We look to the educational system and
educational institutions to equip our people with the latest
advancements in industrial and agricultural technology. We
expect our academy of sciences and our research
organisations to adapt this technology to the conditions of
Ghana. And we look to the managers of our enterprises to
adopt the technology which is developed and to foster skills
by a maximum programme of “on the job” training.
The development of Ghana has hitherto not been sufficiently
balanced between different parts of the country. It is the
deliberate policy of this Plan to correct this imbalance.
Naturally, we must develop in each part of the country the
type of economic activity to which it is best suited by
reason of natural resources and geographical location. But a
special effort has to be made in order to ensure that the
rate of progress in the less favoured parts of the country
is even greater than the rate of progress in those sections
which have hitherto been more favoured. It is only by this
means that we can achieve a more harmonious national
development.
In the present Plan period, it is proposed to pay special
attention to the modernising of agriculture in the savannah
areas of the Northern and Upper Regions. It is hoped through
secondary industries based on agricultural raw material, to
turn the Northern areas into major sources of food supplies
for the whole country. In this regard, the Government has
recognised the importance of irrigation and water
conservation in the country, and has already initiated far
reaching plans for major schemes of irrigation and water
conservation. Mr. Speaker, the backbone of Ghana’s
agriculture has always been its farmers who, particularly in
recent years, have made a fine contribution to the economy
and expressed their patriotism in a number of unselfish
ways. The developments the Government is proposing in the
areas of State and cooperative farming will bring them a
share of the local facilities they have so long been denied.
More than this: they will have the opportunity also to share
in the up-to-date techniques of farming that must be
employed, if greater yields and diversity of crops are to be
attained.
I want our farmers to understand that the State Farms and
Cooperative enterprises are not being encouraged as
alternatives to peasant farming. The interests of individual
peasant farmers will not be made subservient to those of the
State Farms and Cooperatives. We need the efforts of our
individual farmers more than ever, along with our State
Farms and Cooperatives, if we are to achieve, at an
increased pace, the agricultural targets we have set
ourselves. We look to our individual peasant farmers for the
enlargement of investment in our agriculture.
Mr. Speaker, as I have stressed time and again, the
revolution taking place in Ghana is chiefly a revolution of
the workers and the tillers of the land. A vital phase of
this revolution is the implementation of the Seven-Year
Development Plan which aims at the total expansion of all
sections of our economy to raise the standard of living of
the people of Ghana. I am happy that the workers have
demonstrated their complete dedication to our revolutionary
cause. Upon the attainment of independence, the Party, as
the conscious political vanguard of the Trade Union
Movement, worked with the Trade Unions and created a new and
more effective structure of the Trades Union Congress.
Government supported the desire of the workers for this new
Trade Union structure.
Thus, we were able to create in our labour and industrial
laws, conditions for resolving quickly and expeditiously,
the problems of our working population. This, also, the
workers accepted the responsibility to contribute to the
economic and social reconstruction of our economy.
In the State sector of our economy, the workers employed in
our State Corporations will be afforded full and equal
opportunities for participating in the planning and
execution of our industrial projects. It is only in this way
that the workers will closely identify themselves with the
attainment of the economic and social objectives of our new
society and will thus equate their own welfare with the
prosperity of our country. Such new working relationships
will enable the workers to acquire the sense of complete
belonging and full participation and they will no longer
consider themselves as working for colonialist exploiters. I
have given instructions that some of our State enterprises
be handed over completely to the workers who will manage
them for themselves on behalf of the State.
The success of this Seven-Year Development Plan will only be
attained, if the enthusiasm of our workers is mobilized and
they know the part they ought to play and are drawn into
full consultation in the execution of our Plan.
I therefore call upon all workers, farmers, fishermen and
peasants of our country to accept this challenge and fulfil
the hopes and aspirations of our people.
Mr. Speaker, when I spoke at the opening of the Unilever
Soap Factory at Tema on the 24th August, 1963, l said among
other things that, in order to pay tribute to the importance
of labour in the development of Ghana, the Government has
decided to institute a special Order to be known as the
"Order of the Black Star of Labour." Details of this Order,
which will rank among the highest honours of the State, have
now been worked out and all classes of labour will qualify
for this Order. It is my confident expectation that this
award will provide an ample incentive to all workers, and
that every worker of the nation will make it his ambition to
qualify for the title of Worker of the Year and to become
heroes and heroines of Labour.
Mr. Speaker, Members of the National Assembly, I am happy to
inform the House that on present estimates, it is
confidently expected that the Volta River Project will begin
to generate electrical power by September, 1965. On that
date, we shall come to the end of one phase of our cherished
goal and usher in the beginning of a new and more exciting
endeavour to utilise the vast electric power which will be
at the country’s disposal for the enrichment of our economy
and our people.
Completion of the Volta Project will enable us to develop
the industrial potential of Ghana. Indeed, the possibilities
for our agriculture and industry will be completely
revolutionised. First and foremost, the Volta Project will
increase by nearly 500 percent, the installed electrical
capacity of the country. Nearly one half of this new
capacity will be taken up by the aluminium smelter in Tema.
But there will be an ample reserve of power for other users,
and Ghana will have liberated herself decisively from the
possibility of power shortage becoming again a brake on the
rate of economic progress.
I would like in this context to point out the degree to
which the Volta Scheme fits into our chosen combination of a
mixed economy with socialist and co-operative goals. A major
part of the scheme is being financed by the Ghana
Government; but the American and British Governments have
joined in the financing of it, together with the World Bank,
and we have had the most helpful and fruitful collaboration
with American enterprise in the shape of the Kaiser Group of
Industries.
Meanwhile, our Italian contractors, Impregilo, have achieved
the remarkable feat of taking one year off the time of
construction of the dam. Throughout the scheme, we have
worked together in the greatest harmony. I regard this great
scheme as an example of the way in which careful and proper
planning together with foreign investment, public control
and participation, and the devoted labours of the people can
revolutionize the economic base of society.
Such an achievement can have significance far beyond Ghana’s
frontiers. It is only by strengthening our economy in this
way that we can make an effective contribution to our
brothers in Africa and the political unification of our
continent. In this endeavour the Seven-Year Plan makes
provision for the undertaking of joint enterprises in
individual fields of industry and also for the harmonisation
of our total programme of economic development with that of
other African countries.
The Plan we are launching today, relates to projects and
developments which we wish to see take place in Ghana. It
grieves me that we in Ghana, who so strongly advocate the
unity of the African Continent, should be forced to take so
narrow a view of planning. I have advocated for closer union
of Africa, times without number. I have emphasised the need
for a continental union Government for Africa as the only
solution to Africa’s ills and problems. Since the Addis
Ababa Conference, it has been made abundantly clear that
artificial borders which we inherited from the colonial
powers should be made obsolete and unnecessary. While we
wait for the setting up of a Union Government for Africa, we
must begin immediately to harmonize our plans for Africa’s
total development. For example, I see no reason why the
independent African States should not, with advantage to
each other, join together in an economic union and draw up
together a joint Development Plan which will give us greater
scope and flexibility to our mutual advantage. By the same
token, I see no reason why the independent African States
should not have common shipping and air lines in the
interest of improved services and economy. With such
rationalisation of our economic policies, we could have
common objectives and thus, eliminate unnecessary
competition and frontier barriers and disputes.
As every day passes, it is becoming clearer and clearer that
it is only the establishment of a Union Government of Africa
which can save our separate States not only from
neo-colonialism, but from imperialism itself. We in Ghana
are determined to make our wholehearted contribution towards
this objective. We are prepared to make whatever further
provisions may be required to enable us to play our part in
the achievement and consolidation of African Unity.
Recent events in East Africa and in other parts of Africa
have shown how urgent is the need for the establishment of a
central machinery for dealing with the serious political and
economic questions confronting us in Africa today.
Mr. Speaker, Members of the National Assembly, the object of
the Seven-Year Plan which I have out—lined to you is to
modernise our agriculture and develop our industry as a
basis of our socialist society. I, for my part, am
determined that the Plan shall succeed. Its success must
rest on the support of each and every one of you and on the
devotion and hard work of the officials, Heads of
Corporations and Enterprises, whose duty it will be to
translate the Plan into action. In the seven years ahead,
all our energies must be concentrated on its implementation.
It has long been apparent that the administrative machinery
which we inherited was not designed for a country working
within the framework of an overall plan, and in which the
activities of individual agencies of the nation are directed
to clearly defined goals of development. An effective reform
of the governmental machinery is therefore needed, if the
Seven-Year Plan is not to falter on the inadequacies of
administration. The first task in this regard will be to
attune more closely, the policies and actions of every
agency or organ of Government to the overall national policy
as defined in the Seven-Year Development Plan.
I have caused to be published with the Seven-Year Plan, a
guide to its implementation. This guide should be studied
most carefully by Members of this House, by the Party and
Government officials, Managers of State Enterprises, the
farmers’ organisation, the Trades Union Congress and all
those who will be concerned with the implementation of the
Plan.
I have, earlier this month, established several
organisations whose responsibility it will be to see to the
rapid execution of the Plan. These are, firstly, the
National Planning Commission, through which the people will
be associated with the Plan, and which will be enlarged to
include Ministers, Regional Commissioners, representatives
of Corporations and organisations and integral wings of the
Party.
Secondly, the State Planning Committee which, under my
Chairmanship, will be the key body for co-ordinating action
and policy on the Plan, and for giving directions on its
execution and implementation.
Thirdly, there is the Budget Committee, which will make
recommendations for the policy of the annual budget.
Fourthly, the Foreign Exchange Committee, which will make
recommendations regarding the size of yearly imports and
exports.
And lastly, though by no means the least, there is the State
Management Committee which will direct the operations and
activities of State Corporations and State Enterprises in
order to ensure their efficient and profitable management.
I am sure that if these five bodies carry out their duties
honestly and energetically, we shall achieve and even exceed
our goals under this Plan. We might even complete the Plan
ahead of schedule that is to say in less than seven years.
Mr. Speaker, all our efforts should henceforth be directed
to ensuring that everything is done to make this Plan a
success. I am sure that all the people of this country are
determined in their efforts to ensure that we achieve all
our Plan objectives and make our country a happy,
progressive, prosperous and advanced nation. We must
therefore ensure that State funds and resources are not
frittered away uselessly or wastefully or that they find
their way into private pockets.
We shall, in order to implement the Plan, be awarding a
number of contracts to organisations both here and abroad;
we shall also be entering into sales agreements as well as
acquiring goods locally. I intend that all contracts whether
for the construction of factories or offices, or for any
purchase or sale, should be so safeguarded that our funds
will be properly husbanded and utilised for Ghana’s
advancement and for the welfare and happiness of the people.
In order that our resources are not waste by corrupt
practices and in order to prevent any attempts at personal
greed and aggrandisement at the expense of the people and
the State, steps will be taken to ensure that no contractor,
shall offer or give or agree to give to any person in the
service of the Government of Ghana any gift or consideration
of any kind as an inducement or reward for doing, or
forbearing to do, or for having done any act in relation to
the obtaining or execution of any contract for the
Government of Ghana, or for showing favour or disfavour to
any person in relation to any other contract for the
Government of Ghana.
We shall also see to it that no contractor shall enter into
any contract with the Government of Ghana in connection with
which a commission has been paid or agreed to be paid by him
or on his behalf, or to his knowledge, unless before the
contract is made, particulars of any such commission and of
the terms and conditions of any agreement for the payment
thereof have been disclosed in writing to a special
committee to be appointed by me to represent the Government
of Ghana.
Any breach of these conditions shall entitle the Government
to determine any contract, and recover from the contractor
the amount of any loss which may have resulted from such
determination and the amount or value of any such gifts,
consideration or commission.
I have therefore directed that every contract for the supply
of goods and services or for the execution of any Government
project shall embody clauses to give effect to this
decision. These conditions are being made in the interest of
the tax payer who ultimately has to find the money to pay
for these gifts and bribes.
I want the world to know that we shall do everything to set
our own house in order. I want all of us here in Ghana also
to realise that nothing must be allowed to hamper our
efforts to achieve our Plan objectives and that no
individuals will be permitted to hamper that effort, to
retard our advancement in any way or to grow rich by corrupt
practices. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear. The
progress, welfare and happiness of the masses is our supreme
concern.
Mr. Speaker, we know that the desire of people is to have
enough to eat without spending too great a part of their
income upon food. They want a reasonably comfortable place
to sleep; they want light, a ready supply of water,
education for the growing children and future generation,
adequate medical care and welfare services. Our present plan
will go a long way to fulfilling these very legitimate
desires of the people. The Volta project will provide us
with abundant light and water. In addition, a whole
programme of irrigation and water development is engaging
our attention very seriously.
Housing, too, is one of our main preoccupations. We are at
this moment in the last stages of formulating large-scale
housing projects, which we hope to have ready soon. A
factory for prefabricated concrete units is now under
construction and will come into production sometime this
year. When these plans are completed, we shall be able to
put up low-cost housing to meet the needs of our working
people at the rate of about two hundred houses a month. This
should go a long way to offset the pressing housing problem.
In transforming the many centres of over-crowded and
insanitary housing that at present exist in some areas, we
shall look carefully into the traditional community customs
of our people and will, wherever it is feasible and
possible, try to maintain such communities in their
traditional locations, but with a newer, better and more
pleasant look.
Mr. Speaker, we would be hampering our advance to socialism,
if we were to encourage the growth of Ghanaian private
capitalism in our midst. This would, of course, be in
antipathy to our economic and social objectives. There are
some few among us who are seeking outlets for small
enterprises. Such people we appreciate have initiative which
it would be well to employ suitably in our socialist
undertakings. There are some who have small capital savings
which they consider they can profitably employ in business
that will provide goods and services which are in public
demand. Such small businessmen will be encouraged to operate
enterprises provided they accept certain limitations as the
Government will find it necessary to impose as to the size
of the enterprise and the number of persons to be employed
in their undertakings.
In this connection, it is necessary to distinguish between
two types of business which have grown up within recent
years. The first is the type which it is the Government’s
intention to encourage, that of the small businessman who
employs his capital in an industry or trade with which he is
familiar, and in so doing, fulfils a public need.
The second type is very different. It consists of that class
of Ghanaian businesses which are modelled on the old type of
colonial exploitation. Individuals, who can command capital,
use their money not in productive endeavour, but by the
purchase and re-sale, at high prices, of such commodities as
fish, salt and other items of food and consumer goods which
are in demand by the people. This type of business serves no
social purpose and steps will be taken to see that our
banking resources are not used to provide credit for this
type of business.
Even more harmful to the economy is yet another type of
enterprise in which some Ghanaians have been participating.
This consists of setting up bogus agencies for foreign
companies which are in fact nothing, but organisations for
distributing bribes and exerting improper pressures on
behalf of foreign companies. lt is the intention of the
Government to carry out a wholesale investigation into the
activities of these firms. They can do incalculable harm to
our economy and they must be ruthlessly suppressed.
The initiative of Ghanaian businessmen will not be cramped,
but we must take steps to see that it is channelled towards
desirable social ends and is not expended in the
exploitation of the community. The Government will encourage
Ghanaian businessmen to join with each other in cooperative
forms of organisation. In this way, Ghanaian businessmen
will be able to contribute actively in broadening the
vitality of our economy and cooperation, and will provide a
stronger form of organisation than can be achieved through
individual small businesses.
We must also discourage anything that can threaten our
socialist construction. For this reason, no Ghanaian will be
allowed to take up shares in any enterprise under foreign
investment. On tile contrary, we shall l encourage our
people with savings to invest in the State sector and
cooperative undertakings. I know that among our Ghanaian
businessmen, there are some who are ready and willing to
turn their businesses into cooperative undertakings. Where
well run private enterprises are offered to and taken over
by the State or cooperative undertakings, we hope that
businessmen will offer themselves as managers and
administrators.
In the same way, Mr. Speaker, I want to refer to
money-lending which, along with other problems, has been
left to us by colonialism. I know that many of those who are
carrying on this business of lending money at criminal rates
of interest are non-Ghanaians. But, unhappily, not a few of
our own people have joined the ranks of those who make quick
and easy money out of the difficulties and misery of others.
Money-lending and usury are intolerable and inconsistent
with the ideals of a socialist state. We should see to it
that this practice is eliminated from our society.
Mr. Speaker, Members of the National Assembly, I am sure
that imbued with the spirit of the Party’s programme of Work
and Happiness, all those who are responsible for the
interpretation and implementation of this Plan will do their
work honestly and devotedly. It may be that, in the course
of the next seven years some of us will from time to time
attempt to change the choice of emphasis that we have made
and try to direct proportionately more of our national
resources into immediate welfare services and
proportionately less into agriculture and industry. It will
be the duty of those who are charged with the implementation
of the Plan to ensure that these pressures are resisted.
Otherwise, we shall end up in the long run with an economy
weak in its productive base and backward in its level of
technology.
The Seven-Year Development Plan can only be accounted a
success, if by 1970, the year in which we conclude the Plan
and the year in which we celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of
our Republic, we can truly say that the productive base of
the economy has been revolutionised and that the level of
technology and productivity in Ghana is approaching modem
standards over the adequate area of the national economy.
Mr. Speaker, Members of the National Assembly, 1964, the
year in which we launch the Seven-Year Development Plan,
will be hailed as the turning point in the history of Ghana.
In a little over a year from now, we shall be generating
electricity from the Volta River Project to feed our
expanding factories throughout the country. The Kwame
Nkrumah Steel Works in Tema will soon be completed. Tema
Harbour itself is already being extended to meet the needs
of our expanding economy, and in Tema a growing number of
industrial projects are already in production and more are
being established. In this connection, I want to mention,
particularly, the Aluminium Smelter which will produce
aluminium for domestic consumption and export, the Dry Dock
and Ship Repair
Yard which will be one of the finest and biggest in Africa
and the Accra Tema Freeway, which will provide fast and safe
travelling between the capital and the port of Tema.
I can already see, in my mind’s eye, a picture of Ghana as
it will be by the end of the Plan period. I see a State with
a strong and virile economy, its agriculture and industry
buoyant and prosperous, an industrialised nation serving the
needs of its people.
Let us therefore, as from today, move forward together,
united in devotion and determination, to give of our best in
the execution and implementation of this Seven-Year Plan.
Mr. Speaker, Members of the National Assembly, it gives me a
great pleasure on this historic occasion, and in this House,
to launch our Seven-Year Development Plan.
I now leave you to your deliberations. May you continue to
be guided by Providence in the highest interests of our
Nation.
Kwame Nkrumah
11th March, 1964
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