Gov’t policies favour exports at local prod. expense – Graham

Campaign Coordinator for the Third World Network (TWN) Dr Yao Graham has observed that the production of goods consumed locally and the agriculture sector of the economy are struggling following government’s policies favouring export to the detriment of the other sectors of the economy.

This he said, had derailed efforts to grow the economy and also create more jobs in the country.

His observations come on the back of government’s claim that it has created thousands of jobs through its economic management and infrastructural development programmes.

Government last month released a list outlining the number of jobs it has created in the last four years. According to the list, government has since 2013 created close to 600,000 jobs.

A statement signed by the Minister of Communications, Dr Edward Omane Boamah further said close to 96,000 people had also been trained to create their own jobs.

But the TWN-Africa boss dismissed the claim, saying there was no universal economic growth in Ghana.

He told Citi News on Wednesday that “many of the business associations are on record telling us some of the challenges they face,” adding: “Creating a productive enterprise for example in manufacturing and agriculture, which is producing for domestic consumption, is very difficult because policies are biased in favour of those who are producing for exports.”

He emphasised that, “The growth does not create jobs. So even though you may have a headline figure, for example in 2011 Ghana grew by 14 per cent, [but] when it is aggregated a large part of that growth is because the value of oil coming on stream has added to the size of the economic outbreak.”