Coronavirus ripped us off; a call to fix the country very genuine

Fellow well-meaning Ghanaians,

No doubt, the NPP in 2017 took a very challenging economy. The facts are there to show; from production to consumption, every sector of the economy was greatly messed up.

The new NPP government never gave up, it stood on its feet to get things fixed. Though not the best, but things got better within that short period of the first half of Nana Addo's first term. The evidence was huge; the average cost of capital moved from 32 percent in 2016 to 21 percent today.

By 2019, the country that grew so poor in 2016 was adjudged the fastest growing economy in the world, inflation reduced from over 15 percent in 2016 to about 9 percent in 2020, foreign reserves had increased, with many others solidly towed to their right paths.

Not to sound complacent, the NPP government under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had turned a country on broken plastic wheels to one with refined and strong metal wheels seeking to journey on.

Employment, labour welfare and wages, informal sector revitalization, roads, infrastructure, formalization of our economy, education, agriculture, industrialization, etc, were all on course until the unforgettable experience of Covid-19 waded into the scene.

To say Covid-19 has been devastating is the least; it has really turned the world upside down. Shockingly, even the so-called G20 countries suffered worst. A typical example recently is India. India previously was doing well economically-- industrialization, health and medicine, education, production and all the good names. They lent many grants and financial credit supports to underdeveloped countries like Ghana.

Today, India is crying for help. Their help-seeking knows no boundary. They won't even reject support from Somalia. Do you see how COVID-19 have turned a great nation into a mocking stock?

The Covid-19 pandemic came to the world with no respect for any man or country. The USA, Germany, UK, France, China are still battling the virus and its ugly image cast on their economies. Ghana, a toddler in development cannot be an exception.

Back to my point, Ghana like many other countries had picked on the path of growth and expansion when the pandemic sneaked its head to us. It visited us in much dexterity of wrecking.

So an economy that was growing over 6 percent had to be brought back to 0.9 percent in just a matter of 8 months. Eventually, government had to step in to issue some sort of actions to prevent the devasting amour of this virus on the citizens.

The various reliefs and interventions taken by government need no mentioning. Rooting its feet on us, we thought it was going to be a temporal canker but no, it is still here with us and even more biting. In fact, the impact of Covid-19 as the world witnessed in 2020 was the tip of the iceberg. Our world and Ghana, are now, feeling the real impact.

This impact has led to many goods and services skyrocketing in prices. When factories, companies, businesses, markets, and economies are brought down to a near collapse, man has to survive. This means many people are forced to compete for limited supplies in the market. Some businesses, have taken it as an avenue to also make more profits too.

Smart countries and people are leveraging on technology to make things work as though it was before, nonetheless, technology replacing human activities could be a dent on us too. However, governments and leaders cannot say, nothing must be done. We need to table out solutions that best fit us to fix this menace. I agree with a genuine call to #FixTheCountry!

From all I have indicated above, one need not be told, the NPP government had fixed some of the problems of this country and was indeed on the way to doing more before our common enemy today visited us.

Let's take a look at some of the real impact of Covid-19 on our economy. Maybe, just maybe, one would understand the need to fix the country but somewhat a call to a collective approach to fixing it. The NPP government is not happy many youths are jobless, homeless with their future threatened. This is the time for us to come together and build our country as the President also does his part.

Before 2020, Ghana was a hub for many international conferences. One international conference in Kempinski Hotel or Airport View Hotel means that thousands of US dollars pumped into the economy of Ghana.

For example, when Kempinski Hotel holds one international conference of about 200 participants for three days and each of the participants spends an average of $1000 dollars in Ghana, this means an average of $200, 000 has been pumped into this country's economy in just 3 days. This may not even include the visa application fees and other documentary charges to the country.

Most international conferences come with rich feeding and treat; breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and sometimes, desserts and about 3 bottles of water per day. Conference participants will be sleeping their rooms to capacity, what this also means is that regular cleaning and washing of their facility is non-negotiable. Cooks and workers of the hotel will be put to good use and working to support growth.

Again, most international conferences come with tight security needing both public and private security firms to do so. Other supplies to get the conference moving will all be ordered such as pens, writing notebooks or pads. The hotel (Kempinski) will have to take orders for food items, beverages and water from wholesalers/retailers.

The retailers/wholesalers may have to also buy from their producers or farmers before. This means, the vegetable farmer in Akosombo or any village will have his produce bought, profit made and he is able to expand production next season and also cater for his family needs. Beverage producers will also enjoy same with stationery shops also getting their share. Some of the participants hire cars, drivers to tour the country and all these fetch some money to people and the economy.

Today, Covid-19 has rid of all these, conferences are mostly held on zoom, where one needs not to sometimes move their houses to do so. This literally means, the farmer whose farm produce was going to be patronized, the wholesaler/retailers who were going to supply vegetable and food items to the hotel can't have that money.

The stationary dealer, private security company, driver, tour guard who were all going to enjoy some monies from that conference have been ripped off by COVID-19.

When these monies are not coming, people's livelihood is at stake. Kempinski won't buy much stationery as it would with the face-to-face conference. It won't buy more detergent as before because most of their rooms remain unused. They may be forced to lay off workers since they can't pay them for no work done, eventually, the ordinary Ghanaian suffers the consequences but these, are not the will of the NPP government.

Please note, I only used Kempinski Hotel for example purposes, there are many companies and entities which are at collapse owing to the glaring impact of the virus. It is not a joke!

Other examples are travelling bans and restriction to many countries. Some countries like China where Ghanaian business people could go and get us affordable goods bad services have now cut production, those that produce, do so to feed their country only. They don't produce in excess as before. So the benefits in the value chain of importing goods from China have been drastically reduced or cancelled.

Those within the value chain are mostly rendered somehow jobless. The virus is preventing developed countries that would support the developing world like Ghana from doing so because there are equally in a mess. For the saying goes "if the kids in the house are not fed up, you don't throw food to the dogs". Even acquiring a loan from some of these countries is difficult these days. For instance, Government of Ghana have signed a barter agreement with China to give us $2 billion for a percentage of our bauxite. China gave $500m last year and it is supposed to release the second tranche but till now, it is a difficult thing for them to do, the excuse again is Covid-19!

Before, Government had made and announced plans to construct some roads and health facilities from that money. The agenda 111 hospitals are typical examples, the Sinohydro deal is the main engine for their construction. I know, if government was certain of the real impacts of Covid-19 ahead of time, it may not have made those promises then. The reality is here!

It is true things are hard and we need to fix them. The government has no excuse not to but I urge us to see it as a collective responsibility to doing so. Much rest on the shoulders of leadership, but we can also do more to help. The NPP government have done it before, it will do it again and Ghana would be fixed to our collective benefit.

When all is said and done with Covid-19, we will all rejoice and make glad in Ghana. Until then, let's shore up our shoulders to the hardships and bear with Government for a better future.

Mask up and stay safe! The NPP will #FixTheCountry!!