I’ve written a two-part series on the failure of statism in Africa, and I’ve specifically noted how big government has led to bad results in South Africa, Kenya, and Zimbabwe.

Today, let’s look at the sad example of Ghana, beginning with this video.

Is Ms. Ibrahim correct?

Here’s a look at Ghana’s historical scores from Economic Freedom of the World, with Switzerland added for purposes of comparison. The data only goes back to 1970, but you can see that Ghana was on a downward trajectory.

It went from bad in 1970 to catastrophically awful by the 1980s.

It has recovered somewhat since then, but remains mired in the lowest quartile and ranks only #128 out of 165 nations.

What has been the effect of statist economic policy in Ghana?

Let’s compared Ghana to Botswana, which is the most market-oriented nation in sub-Saharan Africa.

Based on the Maddison data, we see a remarkable story of convergence, with Botswana beginning with much less income in 1950 and then catching up with Ghana by the mid-1970s.

After the mid-1970s, convergence changes to anti-convergence.

Botswana grows rapidly compared to Ghana.

Which gives me an excuse to close by asking (once again) ask my never-answered question.

P.S. Not all of Africa’s mistakes are self-inflicted. Foreign aid has led to predictably bad results, and the continent also is subjected to nonsensical and harmful advice from international bureaucracies such as the IMF and OECD.