Revisit Nkrumah’s seven-year development plan – Kwesi Pratt urges Ghana

Veteran journalist Kwesi Pratt Jnr has called on Ghana to draw lessons from Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s Seven-Year Development Plan in addressing the country’s persistent economic challenges.

He said the plan, which covered 1963 to 1970, had a long-term vision and deliberately invested in infrastructure, education, energy, industry and social services, creating national assets that continued to serve generations.

Mr Pratt said the plan was one of the most comprehensive attempts by a post-independence government to transform Ghana’s colonial economic structure and lay the foundation for economic independence, despite the challenges it faced.

He made the call in Cape Coast when he delivered the 15th Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lecture organised by the University of Cape Coast (UCC).

The two-day lecture was held on the theme, “Kwame Nkrumah yesterday, today and tomorrow: Perspectives on constitutionalism, development and Pan-Africanism.”

Mr Pratt, a Pan-Africanist and political analyst, said the plan was built around six key areas: state-led industrialisation, economic diversification, agricultural modernisation, infrastructure development, human capacity and an African economic purpose.

He said Nkrumah recognised that political independence without transforming the colonial economic structure would remain incomplete, given Ghana’s dependence on exports of cocoa, gold, timber and other raw materials and the importation of manufactured goods, a pattern he said persists today.

Mr Pratt said Nkrumah therefore pursued state-led industrialisation, creating state enterprises in manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, hospitality and other sectors.

“Second was economic diversification. Ghana’s heavy dependence on cocoa exposed the country to fluctuations in world commodity prices. Industrialisation was intended to reduce this vulnerability, create employment and retain more value within the national economy,” he added.

He noted that Nkrumah did not treat industry and agriculture as opposing sectors, with modern agriculture expected to provide food, industrial raw materials, employment and export revenue.

On infrastructure, he cited the Akosombo Dam and Volta River Project, Tema Harbour, roads, electricity, Tema Township and industrial estates as major investments intended to provide the foundation for productive economic activity.

“Nkrumah invested in education and human capacity by expanding primary, secondary, technical and university education to produce the skilled workforce needed for national development. This point is especially significant at the University of Cape Coast.

“This institution emerged from the determination to train the educators needed for Ghana’s expanding school system. It demonstrates that Nkrumah’s development strategy was not confined to factories and dams. It also invested in the human beings who would operate and sustain a modern society,” he added.

He said the Seven-Year Plan also linked Ghana’s development to the wider economic advancement of Africa as part of Nkrumah’s Pan-African agenda.

“In furtherance of the Pan African agenda, the Seven-Year Plan linked Ghana’s development to the wider economic advancement of Africa, seeking to reduce colonial dependency and build a productive continental economy,” Mr Pratt stated.

Mr Pratt acknowledged that the development plan faced serious challenges, including the collapse of world cocoa prices, increased external debt, shortages, inflation and weaknesses in the administrative and financial capacity of the state.

“The correct lesson is not to abandon national planning or industrialisation, but to combine them with stronger management, accountability, technological competence, realistic sequencing and disciplined evaluation,” he said.

Mr Pratt also rejected the assertion that Nkrumah destroyed the economy after becoming President.

“Nkrumah did not destroy a diversified, industrial and self-sufficient economy. He inherited a dependent commodity-export economy and attempted to transform it. That attempt produced major national assets,” he stressed.