Pratt urges Ghana to revisit Nkrumah’s seven-year development plan

Veteran journalist Kwesi Pratt Jnr has urged Ghana to learn from Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s Seven-Year Development Plan, implemented between 1963 and 1970, to tackle the country’s ongoing economic issues. Pratt, who delivered the 15th Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Lecture series at the University of Cape Coast, highlighted how the plan aimed to transform Ghana's colonial economic structure, prioritising state-led industrialisation, economic diversification, agricultural modernisation, infrastructure development, human capacity and an African economic purpose.

He noted that Nkrumah's approach recognised the critical need for political independence and transforming the economy, which was heavily reliant on the export of raw materials and imports of manufactured goods. The plan's focus on state-led industrialisation, diversification, and modern agriculture sought to create employment, retain more value within the national economy, and supply both food and industrial raw materials.

Investments in infrastructure, such as the Akosombo Dam and Volta River Project, Tema Harbour, and roads, provided the foundation for productive economic activity. Additionally, Nkrumah expanded education and human capacity to build a skilled workforce needed for national development. While acknowledging the plan's challenges, including fluctuations in cocoa prices, increased external debt, and administrative weaknesses, Pratt argued that abandoning national planning or industrialisation is not the solution.

Instead, he stressed the importance of combining them with stronger management, accountability, technological competence, realistic sequencing, and disciplined evaluation. Pratt rejected the claim that Nkrumah destroyed the economy when he became President, emphasising that he inherited a dependent economy and attempted to transform it, creating significant national assets in the process.