Africans advised to grow manufacturing industries
Mr. Umar Ahmed Abdul-Wahab Salim, Egypt Ambassador to Ghana, at the weekend, said that Africa could narrow the development gap between the continent and the developed nations, if its citizens use their ingenuity to grow manufacturing industries.
He said no country could develop if its citizens continue to rely on buying and selling of products to the detriment of using their minds to generate ideas and ingenuity, to set up manufacturing concerns, which could be developed into multi-national companies.
“The huge multi-national car manufacturing companies we see around the world were started as small garages by people who use their creative minds to establish them”, he said.
Mr. Salim made the remarks at the conference of Jamiat Al-Hidayatu Islamiat, a Muslim organization, in Wa.
Jamiat Hidayatu Isamiat uses the annual conference as a platform to review its activities with a view to addressing short comings, and applaud successes by giving awards to people, who had supported the growth of the organization.
Mr. Salim said African countries had the human capacity, land and natural resources including half of the world’s mineral resources to develop without looking to Western countries for development assistance.
He urged Ghanaians to begin to use their minds to set up small manufacturing industries instead of buying and selling of goods, saying “nobody can help us unless we stand up and do things for ourselves”.
Dr Ephraim Avea Nsor, Upper West Regional Minister, in a speech read on his behalf, noted that although the Muslim community could boast of best brains, their neglect of secular education, especially in the northern of the country, had retarded their progress and development.
He asked Muslims to reverse the situation by encouraging their people to give education especially that of the girl-child a top priority.
Dr Nsor commended the organization and the Egyptian Government for the roles they played in the establishment and running of the Islamic Hospital and Islamic Senior High School, which are both located in Wa.
Alhaji Yussif Issah, Vice-Chairman of Jamiat Hidayatu Islamiat, thanked the Egyptian Government for the assistance it has given to his organization over the years, especially in education and health sectors, which were priority areas for their organization.
He appealed to the government of Egypt to grant scholarships to Muslims from the area to study professional courses like medicine and pharmacy.
Source: GNA