Ghanaians have cumulatively lost/losing confidence in politicians! Politicians over the years have told us to sacrifice but we don't see that in their lifestyle! The govt. says the wage bill has hit about 50% of revenue for about 700,000 workers! The question is how much % of the revenue is spent on the Executive better still the Legislature and the Judiciary? Let me end here! I think it's time to think critically of practical and aggressive solutions. I suggest the following simple but bold policies that if implemented will restore public confidence and minimize the dwindling economic condition in the medium to long term. Many recommendations have been made such was at the Senchi Consensus so I will not repeat them!
1. BoG should adopt Exchange Rate Targeting (ET) - this will mean that the BoG/MoF will channel much of their resources into making sure that the cedi is stable since all evidence shows that if the cedi is stabilized, many of our economic challenges are solved.
2. The govt. as matter of urgency must announce and enforce 50% reduction in the number of delegations on all official govt. travels abroad. This should start from the presidency to ministries, government agencies and departments down to districts. The number of government delegations who travel abroad daily does not make economic sense!
3. Govt. must negotiate/dialogue with companies owned by foreigners to delay/lag say 2 years the repatriation of their profit abroad. This must be induced with some tax benefits. Better still, they should be induced to list about 30% stake on the Ghana Stock Exchange to pave way for Ghanaians to own part of the companies! This will mean that 100% of their profit will not be repatriated annually!
4. Government officials especially the Executive must demonstrate some level patriotism/national pride and sacrifice in their everyday action. Government must include into the education curricula a subject say Patriotism at all levels in our education to instill the national pride in the next generation!
5. Others - these will include all that has been said by many including the opposition, civil society, economists and you!
Long live GHANA!
Daniel Delali Ngoh – CSD Ghana
MPhil. Statistics
Research interest- Economic Modeling
Call/Whatsapp on 0244423919
Email- ddngoh@yahoo.com
