President of the Policy Think Tank, IMANI Centre for Policy Education, Mr. Franklin Cudjoe has suggested to the government to reform State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and implement Private-Public Partnership. A move he posits will propel the Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda.
He stated that, the incumbent government has reiterated on a number of platforms, its decision to transform the country beyond aid. He averred that it means the country is now poised to transact viable businesses with other economies and private entities to yield sustainable returns.
“The government have even declared that the ambitious one district on factory will be propelled by public-private partnerships (PPP).
“Ghana currently does not have a specific law regulating Public-Private Partnership activities but he, however, said that reforming SOEs and implementing PPPs can create prospects for private investment, lowers the costs of doing business and improve basic services by introducing private sector discipline and competitive market pressures into the SOE sector.”
Franklin Cudjoe
The President of the Think tank intimated that, State Owned Enterprises can be strategic partners in the realisation of the new dream if managed properly. He averred that, the quasi-monopolistic nature of the SOEs, also gives them influence and makes them lucrative sources of patronage.
He also called for the periodical evaluation of SOEs to assess their efficiency to enable government select them for the public-private partnership.
“To get SOEs that are efficient and worthy for public-private partnership, it is essential to periodically evaluate their performance delivery to identify areas that needs to be worked on and make recommendations.”
Franklin Cudjoe
President Akufo-Addo in 2019 officially launched the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda which he posited is designed to create a prosperous and self-confident Ghana that is in charge of its economic destiny; a transformed Ghana that is prosperous enough to be beyond needing aid, and that engages competitively with the rest of the world through trade and investment.
The President speaking during an economic forum between Ghana and Germany, told the gathering that, his government is embarking on an aggressive public-private partnership programme to attract investment in the development of both the country’s road and railway infrastructure as he touched on the country’s infrastructural deficit as part of driving the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda. The President used this platform to reiterate the need for public-private partnership in the country.
However, the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda has not come into full materialisation due the impact of the COVID-19 on the country’s economy. In his inauguration speech as President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, indicated that the overall effect of Covid-19 across the world and Ghana’s response to it has underscored the need for the country to be self-sufficient, the main goal the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda seeks to achieve.
The President said he believes that, combining the ingenuity of young Ghanaian entrepreneurs with the digitization of our economy will deliver the Ghana Beyond Aid dream he envisions for the country, using the enterprising nature of Ghanaians which came to light during this COVID-19 period as an example.
