CEPA urges Ghanaians to develop greater interest in economic issues

Accra, May 4, GNA - The Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), an Economic Think-Tank that provides analysis and perspectives on economic policy issues, on Wednesday urged Ghanaians to develop greater interest in the country's problems and be involved in efforts to solve them.

Dr Joe Abbey, Executive Director of CEPA said: "We as Ghanaians need= to take ownership of the country's economic policies and be engaged in publi= c discussions."

He pointed out that Ghanaians must put partisan issues aside and work towards the effective utilisation of the country's resources. Dr Abbey expressed these thoughts when CEPA launched a publication dubbed: 93Ghana Economic Review and Outlook 2009=962012 - The Dawn of the Oil Era," in Accra. The Publication offers an assessment of the macroeconomic policies and outcomes from 2009=962010 and an outlook for the near term 2011=962012. It also offers insight into the challenges at hand and provides some suggestions for addressing them as well as providing an intuitive appraisal of the financial health of the economy against the backdrop of high non-performing loans in the banking sector and important evolving lessons from the global financial crisis.

The publication, available in abridged form, suggests an increase in the policy rate of the Bank of Ghana that may become necessary as a respons= e to high oil price increases on the international markets.

Dr Abbey said it was worrying that projects and programmes started by a government was abandoned when another government assumed office, saying, this was the more reason for the citizenry to own the country's economic programmes and policies. "Projects must not be tagged with governments, at the end of the day= it is the tax payer's money that are used to pay the loans that accrued into debts," he said. Dr Abbey noted that people needed to get a clear picture of the economy, especially with the oil find and know the exact impacts, stressing on the need to organise public workshops and seminars that would educate people on key economic issues.

Commenting on the publication, he said the country must learn to effectively deal with the related pressure from its citizenry as it assumed the new position of being oil producing country as well as the attainment o= f the lower middle income country status. Mrs Matilda Obeng-Ansong, who chaired the forum, stressed the need for Ghanaians to tackle the country's problems by working together devoid of partisan divisions and look at strategies that would enable the country's resources to be beneficial instead of destroying them. 4