An Economist and Lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba, has stated that Ghana’s major problem is leadership and that the IMF cannot provide the solution to the country’s current economic difficulties.
Dr. Isaac Doku noted that the previous IMF bailouts only resulted in dire economic difficulties, citing an instance in the 1980s where government was forced to go back and re-negotiate with the Fund because its conditionalities imposed so much hardships on the people which they couldn’t bear.
He noted that a lot of money is being misused because its being channeled to illegal activities which do not benefit the state but only individuals. He indicated that a recent study found that one of the areas people steal a lot of money from is the petroleum and crude sector.
“That money you are going for will not change our economy in any way, that is the truth”, he said, adding that the way government is currently handling the affairs of the country, there is no way that money will do anything.
“Our problem is leadership. I read something that someone is calling for a change in the leadership of the economic management team; our problem is about leadership and corruption. So, for me, I don’t believe that $2 billion will change anything; the $2 [billion] will not change anything. The money we are going for from the IMF is to support balance of payment, we have problems with our balance of payment account. At the end of the day, it means that we are importing more than we are exporting.
“If we are importing more than we are exporting and we want to correct balance of payment issues, we will not go to IMF; the policies are so simple. Majority of our reserves, we spend them on oil so why shouldn’t we revamp TOR? When we revamp TOR, we can produce locally. If we are producing our oil locally, then we can reduce the pressure on our balance of payment”.
Dr. Isaac Doku
Need to cut a niche through value addition
Dr. Isaac Doku bemoaned that Ghana has relied so much on the importation of raw materials which brings in only little amount of money. He indicated that value addition will also limit the pace at which the country exploits its resources to ensure they don’t runout quickly.
The Economist underscored that last year, Ghana was the leading producer of gold in Africa but has just moved to second this year which means gold production is going down.
“So, we need to also look for other ways to add value to some of the things that we produce locally so that we can have higher values for them. And then, agriculture products are selling so if government wants to cut a niche around agriculture, it will reduce imports.
“We shouldn’t be blaming the Russia-Ukraine war that due to a rise in fertilizer prices, we cannot produce much. At the end of the day, food is expensive in the country. It doesn’t make sense! We need to focus well. If we see that agriculture is what we think we can diversify and export, we need to really look at it with home-grown policies”.
Dr. Isaac Doku
He indicated that he has never supported any move to seek an IMF bailout because “anytime the government says it’s going to the IMF, I ask myself, is it that the brains they have is different from what we have? Can’t we manage our own affairs?”
Dr. Isaac Doku therefore, urged the government to seal the loopholes and not rely on the amount the IMF will give out because it may not solve the problems facing the country. He noted the conditionalities that may come alongside the support, may further cripple the economy whose pace of recovery has already begun to slow.
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