Emeritus Professor Ernest Aryeetey, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, has called for a stronger national commitment to building local technical expertise as the foundation for Ghana’s economic transformation.
Speaking on The Point of View on Channel One TV, the respected economist said Ghana’s overreliance on foreign consultants and institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has limited the country’s ability to craft policies suited to its unique developmental realities.
According to Prof. Aryeetey, successive governments have failed to nurture a consistent, home-grown reform agenda, often allowing international experts to dictate the direction of national policy. “You don’t let a World Bank consultant come and tell you what you need to do,” he asserted. “You should be telling him or her, this is what I want to do — can you help me structure it, not ask him what should I do.”
He argued that Ghana’s economic plans are frequently reactive and externally influenced because policymakers lack a well-defined national blueprint backed by local research and data. “We didn’t always go to them with a clear plan of what we wanted,” he said, referring to Ghana’s engagement with Bretton Woods institutions. “We often went to say something like we want to do something about agriculture, and they would say okay fine, we’ll send you some experts to come and help you.”
Prof. Aryeetey explained that while international consultants may offer valuable insights, their approaches are often shaped by experiences in different contexts, making them less effective for Ghana’s needs. The absence of strong local capacity, he noted, has perpetuated a cycle where foreign advice overshadows indigenous solutions.
He therefore urged policymakers to prioritise the training and empowerment of Ghanaian economists, planners, and technocrats capable of steering the nation’s reform agenda from within. “We have to invest in people who can tell government how to transform our sectors,” he said.
His remarks add fresh urgency to the national conversation about self-reliance in economic management and the long-term costs of depending on external prescriptions for policy direction.
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