Stop economic mismanagement - Danso

Kumasi, Nov 7, GNA - Mr S.K. Danso, Special Aide of the late General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, Chairman of the erstwhile National Redemption Council (NRC), has called for an end to the mismanagement of the nation's economy.

"What needs to be changed as we celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the nation is to stop the economic assassination that is going on in the mining sector", he said.

Mr Danso was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi on Ghana's preparation to celebrate its 50 years as a sovereign nation. He said to bolster the country's economy on attainment of independence, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the first President, laid out plans to build a factory that would refine gold.

Mr Danso said the project was discontinued after his overthrow and that this had had a disastrous effect on the economy. "Today many investors in Ghana are interested in the mining sector and I wonder whether they refine the gold locally."

Mr Danso, a former Lay Chairman of the Kumasi Diocese of the Methodist Church, said the government had put an end to the exportation of round timber logs.

"The government must put in place measures to refine the gold in the country in the interest of the nation."

Mr Danso said all over the world the real acid test of socio-economic development, looking at the economies of the industrialised countries in western Europe, point to the need for politicians to deliver on the basics of life for the people. "This they can do by significantly increasing the levels and quality of their living conditions that come from the wealth of the country," he said.