Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has bemoaned the growth of private sector in the country, noting that much is not being done by various governments to boost the private sector.
In an exclusive interview on TV3, Wednesday, November 26, 2025, the former President said the private sector has been left handicapped with little government support.
He noted that there are not enough policies introduced by government to help the private sector grow and add value to the country’s resources.
“Private sector has not been helped too. There’s lip-talk of private sector being the engine of growth, where are the policies which help the private sector to grow to become the engine of growth of the economy.
“Ghana can do far better than its doing,” he stated.
He explained that government should partner private sector for value addition and more investment into the country’s economy.
“Now, there’s the terminology of public-private partnership. I believe the public sector should set the framework to empower the private sector to attract investment, to add value,” Kufuor stressed.
He believes that government must set out key policies geared towards empowering businesses in the private sector to process the country’s raw materials through industrialisation and value addition.
You talk of industrialisation, it shouldn’t be the government as such doing the industrial or value-addition.
“Government should rather lay the policies that should empower the private sector to use the raw materials with value addition to create the factories,” he added.
Citing the cocoa industry as an example, the ex-President noted that while Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa, the country earns a little for exporting cocoa beans, which he explained is due to the fact that there’s no value addition to the raw resource.
He implored that the private sector must be attracted to add value to the country’s resources to earn more for the economy.
“We know that the cocoa industry internationally, is an industry that generates over 100 billion dollars every year. Ghana is the second producer of cocoa. How much does Ghana earn a year for producing say 500, 000 tonnes of cocoa?
“Attracting the private sector to add value to make the chocolates or at least getting some for of the process completed,” he said.
Source:Fiilafmonline/3News
