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Former Deputy General Secretary for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho, has described as “brilliant” the idea of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to empower the local industry to begin to manufacture Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for Ghanaians and the health workers in the wake of the COVID-19.

President Akufo-Addo on Sunday, April 5 2020, addressing the nation on the state of the novel coronavirus in the country announced that in order to meet the global challenge with the PPE, the local industry will on Tuesday, April 7 2020 begin to produce face masks and other PPE.

Commenting on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Koku Anyidoho wondered why it took the COVID-19 pandemic for the country to realise its ability to focus on the local industry to produce certain things that are needed in the country without giving them as contracts to individuals to import from China.

“The interesting aspect of the President's speech is that on Tuesday, April 7 2020, our local industries are going to start producing face masks and other PPE. Brilliant idea he mentioned and so it means that Ghana has the capacity to produce. So, all these years, what were we doing? We have been giving contracts to people to go to China to bring in PPE and other things which we could have manufactured locally,” he said.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Atta Mills Institute asserted that the novel coronavirus has pushed out the creativity in Ghanaians to begin to invent some forms of technologies to assist in the fight against the COVID-19 and other basic needs of Ghanaians.

“God is telling us something through this COVID-19 and He does it so many ways. It means that we have the capacity to think but because these Chinese people are there so supply us what we want, we don’t think but rather we import things from China. Now, we will begin to produce locally,” he averred.

He was optimistic that “never again are we going to import things into the country by giving the contract to one person to import goods that we can produce locally”.

He stressed that after the COVID-19 pandemic, the resilient of Ghanaians to produce locally will be in full force; urging that the Akufo-Addo government must give incentives to the local industries to produce locally.

“We will all build the local industries that Kwame Nkrumah wanted to build and after all, President Akufo-Addo has said that the necessity is the mother of inventions. Out of this COVID-19 necessity, we will invent a lot in the country”, he mentioned.