Ghana's Economy In One Picture

 

A picture making rounds on social media has really caught my attention and I don't know whether to laugh or to cry but honestly if you can see my mood whiles I am putting this article together, I have both laughed and cried at the same time. You know the kind of giggling laughter that ends up putting tears in your eyes running down your cheeks.

Anyway, I really broke down when one of my friends on Facebook posted this image with the caption, "busy for nothing". I mean I don't know if these are palatable words to use to describe your President but hey I guess everyone is feeling the heat in the economy so alot will come out to describe it in their own words.

Just today also I chanced on an article somewhere where the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta is seen almost in tears saying that if the E-Levy is not implemented the economy will collapse in a matter of time. 

We have really reached a breaking point in this our time in this country and one cannot help but ask, what if our Telcos industry have not made great successes and giant strides in their own affairs, where would the hope of government have been?

Why must a government's salvation come from the operations of a private or even a public owned Enterprise? I think the situation is scary enough come to think of it. 

How many Telcos do we have in Ghana at all,let me see if I can name them; we have Vodafone, MTN, AirtelTigo and Glo. So I think we have four telecommunications companies in Ghana. 

When it comes to money transfer I don't think we should even mention AirtelTigo and Glo so the main players are MTN's MoMo and Vodafone cash but I even think the main player is MTN which is a South African owned mobile network.

If a fellow African country's mobile network's activity is what you are counting on to sustain your economy then we all agree that you have not been productive at all. 

This is not politics, we are saying facts. The plenty promises that was given by government before they came to power did they not already know how they were going to finance it?

These days I don't hear "One District One Factory", "One Village One Dam", "Planting For Food and Jobs", NABCO, Sky Trains, National Cathedral etc. Why has the call for a National Cathedral especially gone down these days? Are we going to establish the National Cathedral with the E-Levy or what?

Franklin Cudjoe of Imani Ghana made a very wonderful exposition on NABCO on his Facebook page, I wish to share here, he said and I quote:

"The famous Economist, Milton Friedman is reported to have explained how  government programs  put people to work without considering their productivity when he went to China in the 70s. Friedman asked a road works engineer why labourers were using shovels to construct drains when tractors could do the work efficiently. The engineer responded that he wants more people employed, to which Friedman suggested the labourers be given spoons instead so many more can be employed. That is the story of NABCO. They were not needed for the tasks in the first place."

According to the above statement, NABCO was not needed but in an attempt to create "by force" temporal employment for the youth of this country it was implemented and that has weighed heavily on us. I think as at now those recruits are been owed by government. 

This is a clear case of bad decision making on the part of the government that is causing the economy to derail which is now affecting almost everybody in the country except ofcourse those who eat in the same bowl with the powers that be. 

I have also come across a diagram of how the US economy has performed under Joe Biden considering their GDP growth rate and what I noticed is that the loud mouth politicians in their regime were trailing whiles the quiet and reserved ones did so well, notable mention is Joe Biden himself and Bill Clinton but Trump and Obama were trailing like twins because these group of politicians were characterised by showmanship. 

Take a look at the diagram and the caption of Joe Biden on his Facebook page if it is not a slap to all politicians in the world including our own President :

"This didn’t happen by accident. Because of the actions we took, last year we achieved the fastest economic growth in nearly four decades."

Joe Biden by his caption is saying the 5.7% growth rate which has not occured in four decades was not achieved by accident but as a result of the actions they took last year. 

Not actions to further burden the people of America but actions to help them deal with the effect of the Covid-19 and now their economy has been able to achieve this feat.

How long did the lockdown last in Ghana? I think it was a little over a month or so and this is how our economy is not limping because of its effect? No I don't think we are going through this because of Covid-19 but because bad and hasty decision making.

I remember when the financial sector reformation was ongoing I did say that it will definitely have an adverse economic impact in the country if not properly managed. 

I did say that the blood of a country is it's finances therefore if you do not handle the financial sector well and you run into decisions of collapsing banks and merging their operations without extensive care and consultations, it's rippling effect in the medium to long term can be disastrous and now here we have it. 

Well I wish the government and the economy well and I pray that God helps us to tackle our hurdles and be revamped but the way things are going now, for us to have a perfect picture to describe the situation, we need to also have a picture of Dr. Bawumia and Ken Ofori-Atta in their office with their textbooks on their desks like the way we are seeing the President displaying his own in his office now. 

Ghana cannot be run using textbook approach and theories. Textbooks are meant to help you to pass your exams but the economy is practicals and you need to put on your working gear and get to the base of practical issues with the citizens and tackle them. This I think we did not do, we sought solace in our textbooks and this is where we are today. 

Forgive me but the President has been fantastic in certain areas too in the country like illegal mining, security, education, agriculture, land issues, digitization etc but so long as majority of the people are complaining of hardship in the economy we cannot only focus on the positives but talk about the negatives too. 

God bless our Homeland Ghana.