Two hundred and fifty years after Adam Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, its central questions remain relevant to countries still working out how to create prosperity, expand opportunity and build institutions that let people flourish.
As part of Liberty Sphere 2026, YAFO Institute marked the anniversary under the theme “Freedom, Enterprise and the Future of Prosperity.” The session was led by Ebenezer Tackie Oblie and Nathaniel Dwamena. Rather than treat Smith simply as the author of an influential book, it examined the wider intellectual framework behind his work and asked what it could mean for Ghana and Africa today.
Smith was born in Scotland in 1723 and became a leading figure of the Scottish Enlightenment. Although remembered as an economist, his interests spanned moral philosophy, jurisprudence and political economy. His first major work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, appeared in 1759, seventeen years before The Wealth of Nations.
Beyond “Greed is Good”
The discussion urged a rethink of the popular image of Smith as a defender of self-interest alone. The Theory of Moral Sentiments examined sympathy, moral judgment and the social conditions that shape human conduct, and his economic writing sits within that wider interest. Even the famous “invisible hand” appears only once in The Wealth of Nations.
The lesson is that markets do not operate apart from social institutions. Justice, security, trust, property and the enforcement of contracts all shape whether people can take part productively in exchange. Smith’s discussion of the administration of justice ties it directly to the security of individual rights.
The Division Of Labor And The Productivity Of Specialization
A second lesson discussed at the commemoration was Smith’s emphasis on the division of labour.
Smith famously began The Wealth of Nations with the example of a pin factory. He described how the production of a pin could be divided into numerous specialised operations and observed that ten workers could produce upwards of 48,000 pins in a day under such an arrangement. Smith used the example to demonstrate how specialisation can dramatically increase productive capacity.
Two and a half centuries later, the underlying principle remains visible in modern production: people and organisations specialise in different tasks, exchange with one another and combine their knowledge and skills through increasingly complex networks.
For Ghana and other African economies, this raises a continuing question about how to move from participation in markets primarily as producers of commodities toward greater participation in activities involving processing, manufacturing, specialised services, technology and other higher-value production.
Wealth is about productive capacity, not simply accumulated resources
The discussion also returned to a fundamental question implied by the title The Wealth of Nations: what actually makes a nation wealthy?
Smith’s analysis challenged the mercantilist tendency to equate national wealth with the accumulation of gold and silver. His focus instead included the productive powers of labour, the division of labour, exchange, capital and the institutions governing economic activity.
This has contemporary relevance for resource-rich economies. Possessing natural resources does not automatically translate into widespread prosperity. The more fundamental question is how effectively people, firms and institutions transform resources, knowledge, labour and capital into goods and services that create value.
For African economies, the challenge is therefore not simply to possess resources, but to create the conditions under which people can specialise, invest, innovate, trade and participate in increasingly productive economic activities.
Smith Did Not Argue for a Government of Zero
In Book V, Smith set out three responsibilities of the sovereign: national defense, the administration of justice, and certain public works and institutions that benefit society but may not be profitable enough for private provision. He specifically discussed infrastructure supporting commerce and institutions for public instruction.
The real distinction is therefore not “government versus markets”. It is about which institutions perform which functions, how they are governed, and whether they create or obstruct productive activity. For Ghana, that means asking practical questions about courts, infrastructure, education, property rights, contract enforcement and regulation.
Why Adam Smith Matters to Africa at 250
The most important question raised during the commemoration was perhaps the most basic one: why do some nations become prosperous while others struggle to convert their resources and human potential into broadly shared economic opportunity?
Smith’s work does not provide a simple 250-year-old formula for solving contemporary African development challenges. But his analysis provides concepts with which those questions can still be examined: productivity, specialization, exchange, enterprise, institutions, justice and the role of government.
This is where the YAFO Institute’s theme—“Freedom, Enterprise and the Future of Prosperity”—connects the historical discussion to contemporary Africa.
The argument is not simply that markets exist or that governments should disappear. It is that prosperity depends in part on whether people have meaningful opportunities to produce, exchange, innovate, invest and retain the benefits of their productive activity within institutions capable of protecting rights and administering justice.
Taking Smith’s ideas beyond English
The commemoration also served a practical purpose. The YAFO Institute used the occasion to renew its call for support for the Liberty Anansesem Project, which seeks to translate Eamonn Butler’s Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations – A Graphic Novel into Asante Twi and make it available to individuals, schools and community libraries in Ghana. YAFO’s event announcement identifies the translation project as part of its effort to make Smith’s ideas accessible to a wider audience.
The graphic novel itself was created by Eamonn Butler, Director and co-founder of the Adam Smith Institute, to present Smith’s central ideas in a more accessible visual format.
Making such material available in Asante Twi is therefore intended not merely as a translation exercise, but as an education and accessibility project. Ideas about economics and political economy can have limited reach when they remain confined to specialised English-language texts. Translation can create another entry point for students, teachers, entrepreneurs and members of the wider public who may otherwise have little opportunity to encounter these ideas.
YAFO Institute is pursuing the translation of Eamonn Butler’s The Wealth of Nations: A Graphic Novel into Asante Twi, with the written permission and copyright waiver secured from the rights holder. The project seeks to make foundational ideas about markets, enterprise and prosperity accessible to a wider African-language audience.
The objective is straightforward: to make important ideas more accessible, not simply to commemorate them.
Looking Ahead: Following the Ideas Beyond the Program
The 2026 Liberty Sphere produced clear outputs: 29 residential participants, 13 lecture sessions, eight publicly streamed lectures, collaborative group projects, a policy pitch competition and a continuing translation initiative. These form the first measurable record of the program.
The next stage is to document what follows. YAFO Institute will track participants’ continuing engagement, the development of the ideas produced, and any research, community initiatives, advocacy, enterprise or collaboration that grows from the Liberty Sphere network. The program’s durability will be judged by the knowledge applied, ideas developed, relationships sustained and initiatives undertaken, not by attendance or views alone.
As the Adam Smith commemoration concluded, the conversation about the wealth of nations continues. The task now is to make it accessible to more Africans, and to connect ideas about prosperity with the institutions, enterprises and people capable of putting them into practice.
Article by
Joshua L. Tetteh
Director, Marketing & Communications
