Economic Recovery Programme Has Yielded No Results – Sam Jonah

Statistics shows that 20 years after the Economic Recovery Programme, its results are not commensurate with sacrifices that have been made. In 1980, the debt per capita, defined as the ratio of debt per person was 9,068 Cedis but rose to 2.7 million Cedis by the end of the year 2000. The Chief Executive of Ashanti Goldfields Company, AGC, who made this known, regretted that the economy has not grown to meet the demands of the people.

Speaking at a public lecture to mark the annual week celebration of the Institute of Public Relations, Dr Jonah said the bane of Africa’s political economy has been bad governance.

According to him unless African leaders undertake a fundamental review of their policies and style of leadership, the situation on the continent would worsen.

The AGC boss therefore called for a radical change in the style of governance in Africa if the continent is to keep pace with global trends. “First we must take charge of our destiny, tell our story and market ourselves. For far too long, Africans have allowed others to mistell their story and have failed to market their countries”.

He urged African countries to refrain from activities that may paint a gloomy picture of the continent and instead undertake projects that will improve the quality of life of their citizenry.