Ghana’s economy has become “buy and sell” – Catholic Bishops

The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference is concerned about the “high cost of living [and] hyper-inflation” and has called on the John Mahama-led administration to swiftly address it since it is affecting “the family adversely.”

The Bishops noted in a communiqué after their meeting in Accra, Saturday, that high cost of goods and services coupled with a depreciating Cedi is making Ghana’s economy “fast becoming one of buying and selling.”

“Unbearably high taxes are causing many nascent private businesses to fold up. At the same time, we are not seeing aggressive efforts to set up more industries to take care of rising youth unemployment and low levels of development,” the communiqué signed by Most Rev. Joseph Osei-Bonsu, Bishop of Konongo-Mampong and President, Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, pointed out.

It added: “We note the various efforts of government, aimed at improving the economy, including the ongoing discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and the Senchi Consensus. We can only hope that these interventions will lead to economic transformation that will arrest the rising spate of youth unemployment and low levels of development.

“We pray that our own home-grown economic policies such as those implemented under the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Authority (GYEEDA) and the Youth Enterprise Support (YES) may be led by qualified and competent persons. These policies should be given the utmost priority over externally-funded support programmes. Our experience is that externally-funded economic interventions almost always lead to unbearable consequences on citizens.”