NDC Has Created a Mess of Economy - Kufuor

The New Patriotic Party's (NPP) flagbearer for the 2000 Presidential elections, Mr. J. A. Kufuor, has said that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has messed up the country's economy because they have wrong priorities. He made this and other comments in an interview with the September issue of the London-based Ghana Review International (GRI).

Below is the second part of the interview as published in the GRI.

"Mr. Kufuor said the NPP is aware of the poor economic condition of the country but was prepared to take up the mantle of leadership because they have the men to turn it around.

"The government should take the blame for the non-performance of the economy because they did not understand the import and the comprehensive basis of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).

"If they understood its implications to the economy they would right from the scratch had done something for the private sector to grow, and planned that the liberalisation policy worked stage by stage.

"At every point they would have ensured that the private sector which should become the engine of growth will be enabled to withstand the competition that was going to come in from outside.

"They would also have diversified agriculture to enhance our hard currency earnings so that with the fallen prices of cocoa now, we would have benefited from other crops like coffee, shea butter, and cashew nuts."

He said the NPP would operate under the philosophy of a 'corporate Ghana' where every Ghanaian will be given the opportunity to play their par, adding that while approaching the World Bank and other multi-lateral institutions, the NPP would have ensured that the national interest is held supreme.

Mr. Kufuor said the World Bank and the IMF could not be blamed for the non- performance of the economy since they only give guidelines for countries to follow but disagreed with praises they heaped on the government's economic performance.

"The truest and the best judge of how well an economy is functioning must always be the populace of the nation pursuing the policies… and the people of Ghana are not agreeing with the praises being heaped on the government by the IMF/World Bank. The people do not think the government as having done well."

That the government worked policies with the World Bank and the IMF does not mean the policies have succeeded, he said, adding that after 17 years of the programme, Ghana is still a mono-crop country depending largely on cocoa and gold for its export earnings, just as when it started.

"Now that the prices for these commodities have fallen, there is no other means for the government to fall on. This is why we cannot agree with the World Bank and the IMF, and all others who say the government has done well."

Mr. Kufuor said the polices were launched not only to prop up cocoa and gold and give out loans to balance the budget.

"It was to enhance the entire economic development of Ghana. A major tie of which was to foster and enhance the growth of the private sector as the engine of growth, so a major test should be how well the private sector is doing.

"When you talk about the private sector, you are talking about the state of agriculture where there has been no serious diversification.

"Where there has been no modernization in the way our farmers farm and where there is still a serious lack of access to credit to farmers; where there is hardly any mechanization, no storage, and is still weather dependent; where there has not been any improvement in marketing and agricultural businesses have not developed to add value to produce."

He said the manufacturing sector is also suffering because the government leapt into liberalisation without planning properly and without grasping the vicissitudes of the situation.

"So now, you find out that the young and budding industries have virtually all collapsed. A case in point is the textile industries many of which have closed down because they cannot stand the competition from the far-east and this cuts across board on other fronts."

Mr. Kufuor cited the finance sector as one that has been showing huge profits but said these are from non-productive instruments.

"If you look at the details of these profits, you find out that the banks show profits from the purchase of government bonds and treasury bills which are not productive instruments … so if the banks show profits, they are profits from inefficient outlays because government bonds and treasury bills do not add to productivity in the economy."

He said perhaps people who applaud the government's economic policies point to the sale of state owned enterprises and the retrenchment in the public sector, which are conditionalities of the SAP but they have worsened rather than improve the plight of Ghanaians.

"The exercise has increased poverty in society because the people laid off in the public sector have not been absorbed into the private sector because that sector is itself incapacitated.

"There is no access to credit for them to enable them to employ themselves because of the high interest and inflation rates which are killing the system. The currency itself has collapsed. Any pretence at stabilising the currency has been exposed because the fundamentals supporting the currency are so weak structurally."

He said although a lot of money has been thrown into attracting investment and a lot of publicity given to it, the government is unable to attract any meaningful investors because it has not put in place the right measures.

"The proverb that 'a leopard cannot change its spots' should always be there to stare this government in the eye because you need the private sector and yet you killed the private sector domestically."

Mr. Kufuor said his party's going to congress two years earlier has been an advantage as they have had more time to tour the rural areas as against in 1996 when they had just four months.

The party, Mr. Kufuor said, has made the polling agents its focal point and are giving them training to ensure that they man all 20,000 polling stations effectively.

He denied accusations of elitism levelled against his party as the making of their opponents and said their members are at home with all the rural people anywhere they go adding that there is peace within the NPP.

"My party is more on the ground with the people across the length and breadth of this country than the ruling party. It has not been difficult at all for me to relate with the people anywhere l go in the rural communities.

"The real problem has been getting the logistics to get there because accessing the rural parts is very difficult because most of them do not have tarred roads and modern communication systems."

Of the 10 regional capitals, the NPP won in eight and took 85 of the110 district capitals in the last elections. Mr. Kufuor expressed optimism that the party will do better this time round since they have made a lot of in-roads into the rural communities.

He said the opposition parties relate very well with each other and belong to the Joint Action Committee.

"While there is no talk of forming alliances now, we want to relate on strategic terms with each other and are untied in our desire to kick out the NDC. All of us are agreed on that and we will do anything to change the government through the ballot box for the first time in Ghana," he said.

Mr. Kufuor denied that the NPP is playing a waiting game with the NDC in the selection of its vice-presidential candidate but said:

"We are doing politics and so naturally we look at them as to what they are up to, but we are working our own agenda to be careful in picking a running mate who will gain the confidence of all Ghanaians.

"We still have one month to elect the running mate and the party is casting the net wide to ensure that whoever is elected will complement the president and so all factors, such as age, ethnicity, gender and competence are being assessed so that who ever is chosen will be acceptable to the whole country," he said."