Independent presidential aspirant and leader of the New Force Movement, Nana Kwame Bediako, has pledged to industrialise all 16 regions of Ghana during the launch of his manifesto, “The 12 Pillars of Economic Freedom.”
Nana Kwame launched his manifesto virtually on September 1, 2024.
In a livestream event that drew significant online viewership, Bediako presented a series of artist impressions and mock-ups to illustrate his comprehensive vision for the country’s economic future.
Central to his strategy is the transformation of the Western Region into the “Texas of Africa,” leveraging the area’s rich natural resources to drive industrial growth.
“We have to take the Western Region seriously because it has a lot of natural resources,” Mr. Bediako stated. “Western Region is going to become the Texas of Africa.”
He emphasized the necessity of shifting Ghana’s economic focus from imports to exports, arguing that this approach would strengthen the national economy and mitigate inflation.
“We need to export more, not import more,” Bediako noted, outlining his plans to build refineries and increase the production of petrochemicals locally. “All we have to do is build our refineries, and we will have competitive prices, and we will save the losses in the economy, the inflation in the economy, just because of industrialization.”
Mr. Bediako highlighted Ghana’s current oil production capacity, which stands at 200,000 barrels per day. He proposed that refining this oil domestically would not only create jobs but also reduce dependency on foreign markets.
“We produce 200,000 barrels of oil per day in Ghana. We sell this and then, in fact, we let people extract it, go and refine it. They will go back to Europe and buy this same product premium and sell our fuel at 15 point, something cities per liter,” he explained.
The manifesto outlines twelve key pillars aimed at fostering economic freedom and prosperity.
New Force’s 12 Pillars for Economic Growth;
Pillar 1- 16 Regional Industrial Revolution
Pillar 2- Ghana’s First Water Transportation & Sub-Regional Railway
Pillar 3- Energy City & Technology Hub
Pillar 4- Reserves Reserves Reserves
Pillar 5- National Sovereign Wealth Fund
Pillar 6- The SSNIT Revolution.
Pillar 7- Industri-Cation (Industrialization + Education)
Pillar 8- Environmental & Human Rights Protection
Pillar 9- The “Apostolic” Government
Pillar 10- Ghana’s First $50 Billion
Pillar 11- National Security and Data Protection
Pillar 12- Sports and Creative Industry
We need to export more, not import more,” Cheddar noted
Touching on the proposal by the flagbearer of the NDC he said, “No Industrialisation, no 24-hour economy. It will take a machine to produce three different shifts.”
He explained the other pillars as follows:
Pillar 2 – Water: expanding the country through water transportation.
Pillar 3 energy city: We are going to create an energy city that is fit to power all industries. “No energy, no technology,” he said.
“Ghana needs a technology hub and that’s why we’re combining it with an energy city,” he stated.
Pillar 4: Reserves- We will have food reserves for 100 years.
Pillar 5: We are going to create the National Sovereign Wealth Fund. This is the new IMF.
Pillar 6: The SSNIT Revolution. SSNIT to be turned into National Insurance Fund.
Pillar 7: Industri-cation- Industrialisation and Education combined.
We need to de-westernise our education
Pillar 8: Environmental and human rights protection.
We are sitting on gold we are running around for me.
We will purify all polluted rivers
Our forest reserves have billions of trillions in them but we’re not protecting them. Instead, we’re going around begging for money
Protect the rights of journalists
Allow the youth to vote
Pillar 9: Apostolic governance- 1 president 12 ministers
