Never underestimate the power of corruption in Ghana

Ghana is rapidly sinking like a ship on stormy waters due to corruption, which ranges from the practice of bribes and extortion to nepotism, which have had disastrous effects on the already struggling economy.

There is no doubt that corruption is identified as the biggest obstacle to development and economic growth in Ghana.

In 2016, the opposition leader of NPP, Nana Akufo-Addo, defeated John Mahama in the presidential election on the promise to revive the economy and eliminate corruption within institutions.

President Akufo-Addo said that the programs and policies initiated by his government, after five months, would put the country on the path to fiscal consolidation, sustainability, and economic growth. Unfortunately, what we are now witnessing in Ghana is far from the promises the president made.

As a matter of fact, Ghana boasts of ‘Freedom and Justice’ but there is no freedom and justice in the country, making it difficult for many writers and economists to share their views, opinions, and advice on the ailing economy of the country without being attacked by a section of the population.

Fact that politics in Ghana strongly evolve on tribalism and hate, some people find it offensive to write about the corruptible NPP government, and this very dangerous for the entire nation. After all, John Mahama was declared corrupt; therefore, the right thing must be done by Akufo Addo.

As earlier said, since hate and nepotism play major roles in Ghana’s politics, a section of the population supports and defends the corruptible activities of the NPP government; making it extremely difficult to correct what is going wrong in the country.

It doesn’t make sense at all that a rich resource country like Ghana will be in such a political and economic crisis because corruption practices have emptied the state coffers, damaged free trade, and discouraged many potential investors.

According to the World Bank, corruption can reduce a country's growth rate by 0.5 to 1 percentage point per year. IMF research has shown that investments made in corrupt countries are around 5% lower than those made in relatively non-corrupted countries.

The impact of corruption in Ghana is so severe that it has affected all the institutions, including, the police, hospitals, schools, the judiciary system, and the government’s coffers.

When a country faces such problems, the government depends on borrowing. This is one of the reasons Ghana’s debt is very high at the moment and if a country’s external debt increases, it continues to absorb the hard-earned government’s revenues and remains well above thresholds.

In 1997, the World Bank carried out a study and revealed that low wages of civil servants in developing countries attribute to corrupt practices, however, in Ghana, the rich people; including politicians and judges, are the most corrupt people in the country. Many of them even evade tax and customs duties.

Whoever thinks Ghana is now getting better might be extremely corrupt because the poor people and the unemployed are those that feel the impact.

In 2016, Ghana's debt was 122 billion cedis, which is 74% of GDP against 67.4% a year earlier, while in 2018, the national debt of Ghana amounted to around 30.54 billion U.S. dollars, if you are an intelligent Ghanaian find out Ghana’s debt today.