Economic difficulties not new; let’s seek for solutions – Economist  

Associate Professor at the University of Ghana (UG), Eric Osei Assibey said the prevailing economic difficulties that have hit the nation have occurred before.

Speaking at Danquah Institute’s Economic Forum under the theme “Economic growth: Our collective responsibilities” Mr. Assibey indicated that what Ghanaians should focus on more should be seeking for solutions.

The event was nicely put together by the hardworking Executive Director for Danquah Institute, Dr. Antionette Tsiboe-Darko.

Mr. Osei Assibey also added that there it is an undeniable fact that Ghana is in crisis.

“In fact the whole world, the IMF and World Bank are predicting that next year about a 3rd of the global economy will be in recession and across the globe many debt to GDP is rising and inflation is also rising. It has seen unprecedented levels and even in advanced countries for the first time in about 40-years Great Britain inflation is in double digit.

“So Ghana is not alone, but it appears we have been disproportionately affected by what is happening globally. For that reason our economy is going under serious stress. But really this is not so unprecedented we have seen this before,”  Mr. Osei Assibey reiterated.  

He continued: “I mean if we should put this in historical context, even right from our independence. If you look at our development trajectory. You will see that when the British left us, we say that Ghana was comparable to South Korea, Singapore and others because of per capita to GDP.”

Professor Assibey further narrated that “then the Nkrumah government stated spending and state interventions central plan system of governance and at the end. By the time they were leaving office we had depleted our reserves. We were in very difficult economic conditions.”

He said the coup d’état’s coming and during Acheampong time he even said his government cannot pay the huge debts left.

“Then came the global crisis and the weather conditions and we went into serious economic conditions in the 80s. Then we didn’t know what to do so we went in for the IMF programme and the structural adjustment program. Our economy deteriorated and the fiscal deficits became so large. Inflation was about 123 percent and we never thought that we could come out.” Mr. Osei Assibey indicated.

The Associate Professor added that the IMF program at that time saved the nation from the difficulties with severe conditionality which include the divestiture.    

“We were talking about privatization, redeployment and a host of other conditions that hit us so hard although we were young. But we do remember the economic condition. We were fortunate to have come out of that, we saw that in the early 90s and most of the economic indicators turned in a positive direction,” the economist narrated.

He also cited the HIPC initiative that was introduced by former President John Kuffour’s era that wrote off many of Ghana’s debt.

Mr. Assibey therefore advised that the focus of Ghanaians should be how to come out of the economic challenges.