Take immediate steps to address economic hardships - BudgIT Ghana tells government

Civil Society Organization BudgIT Ghana has urged government to hasten its resolve towards addressing the economic challenges in the country.

The call comes after a cross section of Ghanaian youth have over the past few weeks been expressing their displeasure over the increasingly unbearing living conditions in the country.

In a statement issued, BudgITGhana admonished government to take immediate steps to address some of the key concerns to propel growth in critical sectors of the economy.

"Efforts should be geared towards broadening the tax base, ensuring compliance and plugging revenue leakages, rather than burdening the small number of existing taxpayers with new taxes," the statement read.

"The private sector which is the engine of growth, still borrows at an average of 20 percent despite efforts to make interest rates more competitive. This is uncompetitive, stifles business growth and undermines private sector efforts to create employment."

It continued, "Government must adopt determined efforts to overcome vested interests to help mitigate the pernicious effects of corruption, and also ensure transparent and open governance processes. The perception of corruption in Ghana is eroding trust in government and undermining the social contract."

The group however implored the aggrieved youth to explore legal avenues in channeling their grievances, but most importantly rally behind the government to come out of the storm.

Social media has in the past few days, gone frenzy, with the hashtag, #FixtheCountry, which has subsequently become a movement against the seeming successive mismanagement of Ghana.