A private legal practitioner, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo, has intimated that a collaborative effort is needed from all political parties to deal with the country’s economic crisis.
According to him, one party does not have all the solutions to Ghana’s problems and therefore, government must solicit ideas from all sectors. He maintained that a national forum on the economy must take place to proffer long-term solutions to deal with the economic challenges Ghana finds itself in.
“Nobody can say that the President has not done anything but he and his government cannot succeed on their own. The truth is this, no one party has all the solutions to the national [economic] problems we face as a country. We have ideas, you also need the opposition to pass the E-Levy. So, you cannot go about the way you’re governing; the same way you have been governing since 2017, it just won’t work.”
Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo
Mr. Samoa Addo posited that if the President is not willing to show leadership by engaging the NDC, then the nation can continue to go the way it is going. However, he warned that things will continue to go downward for the country because, from the outside it is easy to say the structures of the economy can be changed.
“Because of power, you stood on platforms and denigrated your opponents for power. Now that you are in power, how have you improved the conditions of Ghanaians? Governance is not easy and that is why you need everybody on board because you cannot fight the external forces of the world if you do not have a united front”.
Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo
Economic measures won’t cushion Ghanaians
Meanwhile, a Finance and Insurance Analyst, Edgar Wiredu, earlier intimated that the new measures announced by the Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, that are aimed at dealing with the economic challenges facing the country are only meant to enable the government achieve the 7.4% deficit target set in the 2022 budget.
According to Mr. Wiredu, who was not impressed with the measures, he indicated that these measure will not cushion Ghanaians. He suggested that as part of efforts to shore up the Cedi, government must engage local businesses more than they do to expatriate investors in order to reduce the level of repatriation of profit by foreign investors. He asked the government to see the Ghanaian as an investor.
“When you fail to see the Ghanaian as an investor and welcome people from outside, they will carry all the profit away and you will continue to suffer as a country. When the Ghanaian is doing well, we break him down just to receive a foreigner and make sure he thrives. We do not embrace our own.”
Edgar Wiredu
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, recently outlined measures to mitigate the economic difficulties facing the country due mainly to recent global and domestic conditions. These difficulties, Mr. Ofori-Atta disclosed, have manifested in rising fuel prices, rising inflation and cost of living, exchange rate depreciation, rising interest rate, and revenue mobilization challenges.
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