Utilise proceeds from traditional exports to diversify economy – ACET

The African Centre for Economic transformation has advised the Government to utilize proceeds from traditional exports to diversify the economy.

The traditional exports of Ghana since independence had been predominantly cocoa, gold, crude oil, and timber which formed part of significant revenue generation source for the Government.

According to the Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Report, in the first quarter of 2023, the average price of the three major traditional exports by Ghana (cocoa, gold, and crude oil) had a marginal decline of 0.9 per cent in February 2023.

The decline according to the Central Bank was led by a reduction in crude oil (0.03%) and gold (2.2%) sub-sectors, although the cocoa price rose by 2.5 percent.

It is in this regard that the think tank group advised the Government to redirect the proceeds generated from the traditional exports to reinvest them in struggling sectors to offset their losses.

Miss Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi, Executive Vice President, ACET, said the country was currently struggling in terms of manufacturing, value addition and technology thus it was prudent that government addressed those challenges.

“If you use the resources to diversify, to improve agriculture, manufacturing and strengthen technology; what happens is that if prices of one sector goes down, you have other sectors you could rely on,” she said.

She said other countries equally exported the same products and advised the Government to ensure that the country’s traditional exports were competitive to become the preferred products on global fronts.

The group observed that the exports are at the ‘’ mercy’’ of the world market, saying price volatility was one of the major challenges of the traditional export sector.

The group recommended that government must provide the necessary infrastructure to support the private sector to add value to the traditional exports.

Dr. Ebo Turkson, a senior lecturer at the Economics Department of University of Ghana, said the group was advocating for export diversification which was key to Ghana’s economic transformation.

He said the private sector had the capacity to meet the export needs of the country thus the government must engage them to promote a value addition agenda.