Gold Smuggling: Deal with insider political manipulations or lose the fight - Dr. Theo Acheampong

An Economist and Political Risk Analyst, Dr. Theo Acheampong, is of the opinion that without sealing the gap created from the many porous borders scattered in the country, the fight against illicit financial flows will only be a wild goose chase.

Also, he added that there continue to be strong forces working from the inside of the corridors of power, gaining from the illicit trade and so it makes it a difficult task to fight the system.

He, therefore, wants the matter of insider manipulations addressed head-on to get the situation mended, else, it will only be synonymous with chasing around the bush.

"The borders we have are very porous. You go and chase them in Kotoka today, tomorrow, they are in Mali. There's a lot of insider manipulation, there are people within the system that are gaining it for their own advantage and that is like entrenching corruption as well. So, when you look at all our entry points in Ghana; from Tema to Accra and a few of the other places, the issues, whether it is gold or smuggling, they come back to the same set of causal factors.

"The question then is how do we address it? At the core is the political economy, at the core is how we incentivize people, and if we don't address the insider manipulation bit, the involvement of the state side actors, unfortunately, we'll just be chasing around the bush," he said.

Dr. Theo Acheampong was speaking on Saturday, March 27, 2021, edition of Newsfile on the JoyNews channel.