Election year to spur growth in Ghana’s economy – Prof Bokpin

Professor Godfred Alufar Bokpin, an Economist, has indicated that Ghana’s economy will experience some appreciable growth in 2024 as a result of election related activities.

Prof Bokpin explains that due to the elections, there would be increase in patronage of hospitality services, mainly, hotels and car rentals, which could inject more liquidity in the economy and bring some relief to Ghanaians.

He said this in an exclusive interview with the Ghana News Agency on reflections on the 2023 fiscal year, and the country’s economic prospects in the coming year.

He noted that policies for increased productivity and stability was critical.

“There’s some good news next year because it’s an election year; politicians are going to spend, including travels across all the regions, and that in itself, would inject some liquidity into the system,” he stated.

“This means that there are some related businesses that will also pick up next year – car rentals and the hotel industry, and some Ghanaians whose lifestyles are indexed to political activities, this will be their harvest season,” he noted.

He, however, encouraged the government to put in place mechanisms that would ensure that inflation did not escalate due to the liquidity injections into the system from political and election related expenditure.

“That pickup can benefit some Ghanaians, but we should be mindful that the same situation could cause inflation to go up, because there may be a lot more liquidity injection without a corresponding increase in production,” Prof Bokpin said.

He stated that from the second half of 2024, there could be fewer external funds flowing into the country, which could put pressure on the Cedi.

“The election fever actually begins from the second half of the year as experienced in all previous competitive elections, and many investors would not like to bring their funds into the country, but adopt the attitude of wait and see,” he said.

Prof Bokpin, therefore, encouraged Ghanaians to lower their expectations of the growth in 2024 instantly reflecting in their lives.

“It is better for us to be moderate with our expectations because we’re not entirely out of the woods and there’s still some considerable price that we have to pay to sustain the recovery,” the Economist explained.

For the government, the Economist asked that it fast-tracked reaching agreement with its bilateral and commercial creditors for the second tranche of US$600 million loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“We need to conclude doing so, in addition to the syndicated cocoa loan,” he said, stressing that, that would help tame uncertainty in the economy and save the Cedi from cumulative pressures with its foreign currencies, particularly, the Dollar, and sustain economic stability.