Dr.Charles Abugre,an International Development Economist,is also,a former CEO of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority(SADA) and Cotton Development Authority,Ghana.
“The Northern Ghana is a gem of untapped potential”
Address at the Northern Ghana Development Conference
The Northern Ghana Caucus in Parliament
Tamale
Charles Abugre
21/07/2025
Salutations
Naa Chairman, Naa Yab Nanton-Naa
I am most honored and humbled by the opportunity given to me by the Majority Leader and members of the Caucus to be on this podium. Please accept my congratulations for this historic initiative. It was long in coming but worth the wait.
As 15 mins is rather short, let me get down to it. My aim is to flag some concrete to-dos, can-dos, particularly what I call game-changing projects.. But before I do so it is important to confront at least 2 myths and falsehoods that stand in the way of the national consensus necessary for strategic investments required for the transformative development of Northern Ghana.
Myth and falsehood 1: Given limited resources, the opportunity cost of investing in northern Ghana is too high and too wasteful -relative to investing outside this region.
This falsehood is best captured by this story I am about to tell you. In 2017 myself (as SADA CEO) and then CEO of the Cotton Development Authority went to brief the new Agric Minister after the change of government.
We proudly informed him of various projects/initiatives in the pipeline that we had catalyzed – a planned visit to the cotton growing region of Xinxiang province of China based on a strategic partnership with the Chinese government; a transformative agricultural project for the savannah developed with the support of the World Bank; an Agric technology project that we had clinched with the African Development bank (working closely with the Ministry of Agric etc.).
We talked about the studies that SADA had conducted and the resulting, ready-to-implement master plan for Agric and agro-industrial transformation that we developed with the support of the Brazilian government and the Brazilian company Queros Galvao.
We informed him that with the support of the World Bank several pre-feasibility studies of medium sized irrigation dams had been undertaken ready for the one-village-one dam initiative (if this slogan is not taken literally) – AND that SADA was central to the revived interest in the Pwalugu multi-purpose dam which was also ready for implementation etc.
All along, as we rattled on, the Minister had his head buried in papers he had on his laps. When he finally raised his head, he looked at me in the eyes and said, Mr Abugre, since I became Minister, I have been bombarded by donors about SADA this and SADA that, northern Ghana this, and northern Ghana that.
Let me ask you a question, if you have one dollar to invest & You have two choices to do so. Either invest in one place where the dollar will give you a quick return of 50 cents -raising your income to $1.50. OR, in another place where you would get back only half your money, losing the other half. Where will any right-thinking person put their money, he asked?
As I and my Cotton Authority colleague looked at each other in confusion, he intervened to put us out of our misery by clarifying that the north in his view was a loss-making place. He declared that he was not prone to making idiotic and wasteful decisions.
And true to his words, except for the African Development Bank project that was too advanced to reverse, he put a stop to all the others. This minister was later to become a large-scale rice farmer in the Sissili-Kulpawn valley – undertaking a private investment in an area he had declared as loss-making, and where only idiots will put their money.
The returns to putting money in the northern savannah may not seem as rewarding as elsewhere in the short term, but in the medium – term, it is absolutely the right place/INVESTMENT-WORTHY.
To be clear, this perception and attitude is not confined to any one political party. To move forward, we need to ditch the stereotypical narratives that in the north, things are hard; change is difficult, the people are difficult, they lack understanding, change is costly, and the society is unstable. These largely untrue perceptions are pervasive and damaging.
Narratives and perceptions matter in national consensus building in resource allocation. Instead, we need alternative narratives that emphasize wasted opportunities. BECAUSE the minimum investments needed to unlock them and to turn historical vicious cycles into virtuous ones have not been made and the rich histories and cultures have not been harnessed.
The socio-economic study that SADA undertook in partnership with the national planning agency of Singapore to underpin the spatial planning effort demonstrate this potential clearly.
The SADA masterplans – on Agric and productive infrastructure, urban planning, tourism, renewable energy and investments in technology and technical skills – have demonstrated the region’s investment opportunities and outlined what it will take for the northern savannah zone to transform.
We urge you all to read them, to discuss them and for the ruling government to consider integrating the project ideas into their flagship plans, particularly the “Big Push” and the 24-hour economy+. The Northern Development Authority has copies has these plans and studies.
The Socio-economic study I have just referred to amply demonstrated the capacity of the NSEZ economy to grow robustly. An aggressive and sustained strategy could lift GDP growth by12% annually.
This would increase the region’s GDP (which we estimated in 2015 to be about C16bn), 4-fold in 5 years to C60n and 7-fold over 15 years to over C100bn. The infrastructure investment cost needed to unlock this growth will be more than recovered in a decade.
A modest GDP growth of 8% annually will raise per capita incomes to be at par with the national average in a decade. Left in this current state, the per capita income gap will only widen.
The demographic component of the study shows that the NSEZ is even more youthful than the national average. More than70% of the population is below 30 years. Population growth is also faster than the national average. The region’s population could be 12 million up from 7 million in 15 years. Tamale alone could grow to 4 million people. Unemployment is twice as much as the national average.
There is a clear ticking population time bomb if no strategic interventions occur. However, with an aggressive and coordinated growth strategy as outlined by the SADA plans, 7 million people will be at work in 2040, and the unemployment level will decline by half.
The development problem of the northern savannah is piece-meal, uncoordinated and below par public investment and hardly any private investments in the region’s economic potential.
Myth and falsehood 2: A LOT of money has been poured into the north, especially by donors, with little to show for it.
SADA had an opportunity to address this falsehood, especially in the donor conferences we organized in the past. As time does not permit me to address this issue adequately, it will suffice to note the ff: (1) donor monies directed to the north have been mostly to address extreme poverty not economic investments and, in any case, large portions return to their source countries in the form of technical assistance and primary income (expatriates’ wages).
Even then, improvement in nutrition and child health has contributed immeasurably to the impressive education attainment in the north (2) Put together all donor funds do not add up sufficiently to off-set budgetary allocation imbalances (3) more than 70% of all private investments (especially foreign investments), are located within the so-called “golden triangle of Acca, Kumasi and Sekondi-Takoradi”. Its these imbalances in total resource flows that weigh heavily AGAINST the northern Savannah.
So, what needs to be done?
Let me once again commend this initiative by our Members of Parliament. If such a group had existed before 2017 (especially in the period of the second iteration of SADA), the manifestos of the 2 major parties may have been significantly different because they would have ensured that the stellar work done by SADA at the time would have been better incorporated.
I must commend the former Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for picking up and championing the Pwalugu Multi-purpose dam project even though, sadly the project is yet to be realised.
It is little known that he PMD project was brought to life largely through the aggressive lobbying by SADA through the World Bank. We co-chaired the various meetings that led to the revisions of the feasibility studies. But it is not TOO late. Going forward, and in the interest of time, I will like to emphasize the following for your attention.
- The Caucus should continue to pursue shared narrative to underpin your push for the development of northern Ghana, one which casts the development of the region not as a regional/sectionalist endeavor but a national one – the place with the most advantageous resources to drive Ghana’s agro-industrial transformation. The Savannah is a unique ecology! It the source of most of the water resources of that flow into the Volta lake and into the sea; it possesses propitious valleys that are easy to transform; it has sparse populations and flat terrain that makes land development cheaper and allows for a mix of farm sizes and a wide range of value chains. These value chains have been fully elaborated by the SADA Agricultural Masterplan.
- It is important to keep are attention on the types of projects that will fundamentally change the underlying structural factors that keep the north poor rather than on several small activities often called “low-hanging fruits”. These may be politically expedient but do little to change the game.
- Following from the above, I ask you to ensure that every government commit to at least 3 medium-sized dams (5000-hectare irrigable land sizes on average) PER electoral cycle. Pre-feasibility studies have been conducted (paid for by the World Bank), in at least 12 (of the 20 medium to large scale dams that are feasible in the northern savannah) mapped out by SADA. They don’t cost billions. They cost below $100 million or there about. The benefits are far bigger. We don’t need to be stuck with the Pwalugu dam given the cost (financial and environmental) and political difficulties that will need to be overcome.
- The Volta corridor development strategy emphasized in the 24hr + economy and as part of the “big push” agenda is the right strategic focus. In SADA’s plans this includes an inland port in Buipe/Yapie, a port city (already planned) in Buipe and a possible harbour in Ada- facilitating direct shipping from the Ocean to the heart of the savannah. It envisages a corridor that is connected to all our neighbors – Burkina Faso, Togo, Cote Ivoire, Niger and even Benin. We saw it as a shared corridor and the northern Savannah serves as a bridge between these neighbours and the rest of Ghana. This calls for strategic collaboration with these neighbors in the development of the corridor, including in cultural matters for after all, the peoples of these regions – the savannah and the Sahel and intricately connected.
- We must keep our on the road network, encourage governments to toll the sections the country’s roads that are commercially viable and free up money to invest in roads, especially in northern Ghana that will take some time to attract private co-financing.
- Take planned urbanization seriously. This is one of the potential advantages – cost-wise – for NSEZ, given that the towns are still relatively small and when properly done, can be a major attraction for investment. Do not wait until your cities are gridlocked like Kumasi. Start with the implementation of the Greater Tamale Masterplan – perhaps the best planned city on paper because it was done with the support of the best urban planners in the world – the Singaporeans. It will be good for the Tamale MPs to show interest and champion the modernization of their constituencies. The MCEOs may wish find money to buy and protect lands for planning purposes and least take the first steps of creating access roads for a start. Tamale is the hub of northerm Ghana. The benefits of a modernized and vibrant Tamale will spill over to Bolga, Damongo, Kintampo and Yendi for a start. Let me take this opportunity to commend and and show appreciation to the Sagnarigu Naa for the role he played as the chairman of the Greater Tamale Urban Planning Committee.
- The Greater Tamale Masterplan (encompassing Tamale Metropolitan and Sagnarigu Municipal Assemblies) was accompanied by a digital property tax system that mapped, photographed and digitally coded every commercial and residential property to aid tax valuation and collection without the need for staff to move around. The system was not launched and may need some repair, but it points to ways to drive property taxation and to increase internally generated revenues to provide better services and modernize the city.
- Horticulture – vegetables in particular – have the greatest potential for penetrating international markets. Greenhouse technology can help including stimulating urban agriculture, and the regulation of chemical use is increasingly necessary. It is shocking just how little has been done in these areas.
- For education, I have 3 dreams: (1) that for every STEM school, software coding/basic engineering is compulsory, and every region has a specialized institute of Innovation. In every region there is a specialized institute of technology and innovation where advanced coding, robotics and artificial intelligence is compulsory (2) Technical and Vocational School are prioritized in the north. The nature of the economy and skill needs require it. The catholic church is taking this seriously. A collaborative programme of upgrading of TVETs is essential if the 24hr + economy vision and project are to be driven by nationals in the medium term (3). The primary education curriculum upwards should include ethical and social values – the importance of integrity, appreciating honesty and living simply within one’s means, and in service to the family, community and country.
- We should use festivals, exhibitions, carnival;s, inter-regional sports events etc to promote attention to the area and foster national and inter-ethnic cohesion.
Let’s be clear. A transformative strategy based on long-term real investments cannot succeed if we don’t silence the guns in Bawku and elsewhere, promote national cohesion and vanquish CONFLICTS and heal the wounds. For sure we can kiss the Pwalugu multi-purpose dam project goodbye if we don’t address this, for after all why should the Kusasis agree for their lands to be flooded with water for the lands of their so-called enemies to be irrigated. Why should the rest of the country sacrifice their taxes to be spent in the north if this investment is seen simply as “northern Ghana development” rather than national development.
We must never denigrate social protection and universal healthcare and education. Every malnourished and sickly child or drop-out today is denied a chance to become like the many of us parading as leaders today. We merely need to pull out our childhood pictures to remind ourselves how far we have come, thanks to the investment in social development by the governments before us and ESPECIALLY the churches.
Let me conclude by making three appeals. The first is to the Caucus leadership, that the next conference focus on the question of how to mobilise resources internally (within Northern Ghana and the country at large) to finance development rather than look outwards to “development partners”. As you have may have noticed, the world has changed. Those who once prioritized values of peaceful international coincidence, tolerance, democracy, human rights and humanitarian support, increasingly prioritise investment in their war machinery and their security. Onbce again the world I driven by “you are either with us or against us” . In this context the “Ghana beyond aid rhetoric commands new meaning.
My second appeal is that the Big Push and 24hr+ economy should take a close look at and fully incorporate the concrete plans, projects and policy proposals laid out in the various SADA plans.
My third appeal is that government should reconsider the future of the Northen Development Authority. In my view it should be restructured to serve as a coordinating entity in the north for the 24hr economy/big push. They will provide ground-truthing of the implementation of these flagship initiatives whilst ensuring that the development needs of the northern savannah are not marginalized. The Caucus will need them as their instrument for coordinating the many initiatives and convenings related to northern Ghana and following up on resolutions of the conferences convened by the Caucus. We should not allow the authority to die by neglect.
Naa Chairman, thank you once again for the opportunity to share my thoughts.
Editor’s Note: Published unedited
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