Civil Society Organization – IMANI Africa, believes Ghana should have seized the opportunity to reflect on building a robust economy anchored on a reformed public sector and not wasting scarce resources on Independence Day celebrations.
The country has in recent times, recorded deteriorating economic indicators with inflation hitting over 50% and a depreciating cedi that has increased the cost of living.
This has pushed the government to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $3 billion extended credit facility to help revive the economy.
The government as part of measures to rescue the ailing economy has undertaken a domestic debt exchange programme as part of a comprehensive debt restructuring to meet the IMF’s condition for support.
Commenting on the current hurdles in the economy, Mr. Franklin Cudjoe, the President of IMANI Africa in an interview averred that the current situation calls for a reconsideration of the celebration for efforts to be made towards industrialization.
“We have imposed on ourselves an economy that is not able to bring the needed results and our managers are partly to blame. I thought that we would use this 66th anniversary to recall the morals of a good society, liberating the entrepreneurial energies of every Ghanaian that can build the country productively and move away from dependency. That capacity must be formed on a very reformed public sector that can deliver.”
Mr. Franklin Cudjoe
The President of IMANI also backed calls by some persons like former President John Mahama who disclosed that the money spent on the celebrations should have been used to procure vaccines for children although others say the event will boost the local economy of the region.
This comes as some roads leading to the venue for the celebration have seen a facelift with more than 2,000 kilometres of road reportedly fixed.
“Ordinarily, given the theme for this year’s celebration – ‘Our Unity, Our Strength and Our Purpose’, obviously, it will mean that, if there was something more challenging that we are faced with – like the case of lack of vaccines, then presumably we need to cut back on the celebration and use the funds to cater for these critically needed vaccines.”
Mr. Franklin Cudjoe
Ghana Is Far Better Than Other Countries
Meanwhile, in the course of addressing Ghanaians at the 66th Independence Day Anniversary celebration at Adaklu in the Volta Region, the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo assured Ghanaians of efforts being put in place to revive the economy, adding that: “Ghanaians should count their blessings in how the difficulties is being managed.”
According to the President, he is very much aware of the current difficulties confronting the nation and his government is working very hard to resolve them.
“We all see the images around the world. Here in Ghana, we’ve not had any fuel queues, we’ve not suffered shortages of food and essential items, not to talk of the catastrophe of ‘dumsor’. Undoubtedly, major global developments have had a negative impact on our domestic economic performance. We’ve witnessed historic heights in global inflation and food prices.
“Rising global interests rate triggered by the tightening of monetary policy of Central banks across several advanced economies to tame rising inflation and energy crisis, with crude oil prices reaching unprecedented heights at one point above $120 a barrel. The strengthening of the United States Dollar against all other currencies, the tightening of global financing conditions especially for emerging markets and developing economies.”
His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo further noted that these phenomena have manifested in Ghana in the form of depreciation of the country’s currency, the decline in growth of international reserves, high inflation, elevated debt burden, significant fiscal stress, constrained domestic and external financing, as well as reduced GDP growth.
“It is these that have brought hardships on our people. Government has deployed a number of fiscal measures to help bring relief to Ghanaians and I’m confident that sooner rather than later we’ll see significant relief and recovery.”
His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
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