Artisans are invaluable

Japan and many other countries have been able to speedily recover and rebuild their cities and communities after natural disasters such as typhoon, earthquakes etc. The secret is they have professional artisans. The deal is, I build your house, you roof my house, I paint your house and you sew my curtains. In most of the rich Arab countries, where skyscrapers and magnificent edifices are springing up, they prefer artisan immigrants (hand skilled workers) to white-collar job seekers. A lot of these artisans who are struggling to make a decent living in the country end up migrating to help build other nations to five-star status. It has always been my thought that all my kids will learn an artisan work along with the main stream overhyped formal education. Africa is a fashionista sadly I'm yet to see a world-class clothing line from Africa. Nike, Reebok, D&G, G. Armani, Paul Smith, Jon Sean inter alia are renown across the world and is making lots of money in Africa too. Trust me, a group of well resourced tailors and seamstresses can start a big brand. Elikem The Tailor is making waves. One big support and he's gone. Maybe it's about time the government reconsidered where we spend our money. Fifty percent of our budget on education yet the education is just the name - little or no impact. I've come to realise that talent and skills pay more than the much chased certificates. Fact is, the world's most richest man has never been the world's most educated man. Well, Ronaldo with his talent and skills makes more money in a week than the highest paid civil servant in Ghana. We need a rethink! Talent and skills are greatly rewarding. We need to build our capacities in it as a nation.