Reliance on foreign aid hinders development – Professor Gyan Baffour

The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has cautioned developing countries against relying on foreign aids as he asserts that it is a hindrance to development.

In a speech read on his behalf by the Minister for Planning, Prof. Gyan Baffour, at the 38th CATA Technical Conference, the President said that developing countries, who are members of the Commonwealth, are likely to undermine their development if they are always calling on developed countries for assistance.

“Commonwealth countries, particularly the developing ones, stand the risk of undermining the accelerated development of their countries if they continue to rely on aid from developed countries”, he stated.

“Not only that, developing countries also stand a risk of losing the trust and confidence of their people if they are not able to mobilize enough resources domestically, that are needed to provide the services required to meet the expectations of their people”, he cautioned.

Using the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ policy as an example, the President charged developing countries to facilitate the mobilization of domestic revenue in order to fund their development.

“That is why since assuming office in January this year, I have championed the policy of Ghana Beyond Aid. I believe it is time developing countries relied as much as possible on domestic revenue mobilization to fund their development”, he said.

He also encouraged governments of developing countries who were present at the conference to harness the opportunities made possible by technology so as to enhance revenue administration.

“Going beyond aid therefore requires government to pay particular attention to their revenue administrations. One sure way of doing this is to embrace and adopt modern technology. The availability of ICT today affords governments and their respective tax administrations the opportunity to leverage technology to enhance revenue administration”, President Akufo-Addo advised.