Ghanaian statesman, Professor Emeritus Stephen Adei, has asserted that one of the major challenges of Ghana as a country is the productiveness of the country’s labour force.
According to him, research he conducted showed that Ghanaian workers are among the least productive in the world when they are working in the country and not abroad.
Prof. Adei, who made these remarks in an interview on GHOne TV on April 11, 2024, added that one of the surprising findings in the study was that workers from Ghana’s neighbouring country, Togo, are way more productive than Ghanaians.
“… The Ghanaian worker is one of the least productive workers in the world when they are in Ghana. About ten years ago, the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences asked me to give a lecture on productivity in Ghana. So, I was forced to do some research, and I found that in Africa, given the same conditions, qualifications, and everything else, the Ghanaian worker was among the least productive workers in Africa.
“To me, what shocked me in my research, was that the Togolese worker was more productive than Ghanaian, which I wanted to see evidence of. So, I started looking at Togolese workers and construction in Ghana, their productivity is far superior to the Ghanaian worker; mason, electrician, and everything else,” he said.
To Prof. Adei, a former chairperson of the National Development Planning Commission, one of the reasons Ghanaian workers are not that productive is the white-collar job mentality in Ghana, which has remained in the country since the era of colonialism.
“I think one of the worst legacies of colonialism in Ghana, in particular, is the government work mentality,” he said.
He added that in the private sector of Ghana, not only is productivity low, but Ghanaian workers deliberately try to sabotage their compatriots who own the businesses.
Source: Ghanaweb
