Professor Boateng was speaking at the Distinguished Speaker Series on Industrialisation organised by the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) in conjunction with MIIF on Wednesday [February 9, 2022].

This is a thought leadership platform meant to bring academia together with industry players to think about industrialisation of mining in order to help achieve more value for Ghanaians.

According to Professor Boateng, supply chain management sourcing policies and behaviours have a direct impact on industrialisation and national and regional wide development.

He, however, noted that short-term thinking and sourcing behaviours have increasingly led to the further de-industrialisation of the entire continent.

In his presentation, ‘Supply Chain Management, Africa’s Industrialisation, Long-term Socio-Economic Development and Stability: The Inextricable Link’, Professor Boateng stressed the importance of proactive planning and mindset change for long-term local and regional wide industrialisation.

He noted that value addition is achieved through manufacturing and other advanced innovative technical means.

He also encouraged policymakers to know and understand their supply chain network and the impact of their actions on government structures, public-owned entities, the private sector and people within society at large.

The MIIF-UMAT Distinguished Speaker Series according to the CEO of MIIF, Mr Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng was created as a unique for academics and practitioners to erase the gap between them.

The MIIF boss said; “without sectorial industrialisation, our hopes of becoming self-sufficient will remain a pipe dream. To achieve this we need the right human capital, hence the academic and industrial partnership between UMAT and MIIF.”

Acknowledging the importance of academic and industrial partnerships, the Vice-Chancellor of UMAT Professor Richard Amamkwaah remarked, “without question, industrialisation and local value addition is the way forward for Ghana. We at UMaT intend to help build world-class human capital in support of our novel beyond aid agenda. We appreciate the support from MIIF and the company's determination to help transform the mineral and exploration sector for the benefit of Ghanaians.”

Professor Boateng lauded the UMaT and MIIF collaboration for the lecture and promised to continue with the national awareness campaign.

He said “we have so much yet, the people have so little to show for. In the 1960s Dr Kwame Nkrumah was thinking of industrialisation. Hence he created the likes of GIHOC to help with local value addition. Sadly, virtually all the subsidiaries of GIHOC have collapsed.

President Akufo-Addo’s 1D1F programme is an innovative and forward-thinking supply chain management and industrialisation agenda to help with local value addition to our incredible resources, job creation, especially for the youth, and creative mobilization of national revenue for infrastructure development.”