Promoting "MADE IN GHANA" - Patriotic Message by our White Ghanaian!

There is nothing but a smile and delight to watch the promotional presentation by the white American girl now popular on Ghanaian media called Yaa Broni. One loves the way she speaks the local Twi language.

This may remind some of us seniors of Kwame Nkrumah's message of "Work and Happiness", enticing educated folks to return to farming! Brilliant idea! but it never worked! Without financial support there is no way educated folks are going back to the farms to weed with cutlasses!

In my humble opinion, what will make our MADE IN GHANA campaign stick is a culture of concern and meeting CUSTOMER SATISFACTION. Japan had to learn these principles from American experts.

Dr. William Edwards Deming taught and inspired what has become known as the Japanese post-war economic miracle of 1950 to 1960. This helped Japan rise from the ashes of WW2, and become the second largest economy in the world through processes influenced by the ideas Dr. Deming taught, that:

1. Better design of products improves service;
2. Higher level of uniformity improves product quality;

3. The impact of Improvement of product testing in the workplace and in research centers;

4. Higher quality promotes greater sales through global markets.

For about 10 years of my career in America this writer held the title of Quality and Reliability Engineering Manager in some major American corporations. When Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Isuzu and other Japanese makers like Mitsubishi and Subaru decided to penetrate the American market in early 1970s people thought it was a joke till our own Consumer Reports rated them as having better quality than mighty GM and Ford vehicles, despite their price competitiveness. Japanese companies did the same in the Electronics industry.

The Ghanaian manufacturers must stand by their products in Quality and reliability! Our Ministers must emphasize this aspect of culture! Government offices and agencies must also provide better services!! Even as a full blooded Ghanaian, having government ECG charge me Ghs 1,500 per month (Ghs 100 every two days), with prepaid meters and finally programming the silly meter to cut me off at 4am on the day I was traveling will never ever be forgotten!

Leapfrogging others should imply learning to adapt a culture of Quality and Reliability of products and services also! It starts with concern for others - the same love most go to Churches to be told every week but never seem to get it!

I just spent more than Ghs 60,000 renovating my small Plaza in East Legon including bathrooms, tiles, plumbing, electricals, in additions and repairs, and painting and repair of pavement blocks, inside and outside walls and fence walls! And my question is:

If Ghana workers unions are telling me workers have to be paid Ghs 60-80 per day, what guarantee do I have? Do these workers owe me any obligations?

In 14 years I have had to repair "CONCRETE WORK" 3 good times!! Too many repairs make investment have low return and unattractive! Why! That is a waste of $8k to $10,000 each time and still these fake workers don't even know what concrete work means!! We have to paint our buildings every 2 or 3 years sue to dirt and dust in the air! Why? Every plumbing or electrical work has gone through at least three or more repairs! It makes one so angry I have promised it is cheaper for me to bring an American contractor than use these untrained and deceptive contractors in Ghana running around with no certificates but claiming to be Plumbers, Masons and Electricians!! (And not counting their unreliable untrustworthy character!😢).

Money does not grow on trees in Europe or North America and there are no good dwarfs dishing out million dollars! It is Nkwaseasem to tell me to buy Ghanaian when it is my own sweat money in a free world and the quality is not good. You see ooo! My concrete work in America has lasted 19 years without a single crack or wear! Paint work is also decent! Good Concrete sidewalks can last more than 50 years!

Patriotism does not mean kwasea (fool). Let us demand Quality standards of ourselves and hire workers to clean our environments, ban open gutters and develop underground sewage, green our lands by making it mandatory to grow grass and shrubbery and even flowers in private and public open places, and everybody wins!

Let us learn about Quality and Reliability and put pride in our products and services! Don't tell me to waste my money buying electricity, water or other services from a government agency or corporation that becomes a waste of hard earned moneys! And the old militaristic methods of forcing us to buy only certain cars or products never worked!

Long live a free Ghana! May God bless our people to learn to be humble and learn from others as the Japanese and Asians learned from America before we think of leapfrogging them!

Merry Christmas to all.
Dr. K. Danso Dec.16, 2017