Ghana must show appetite for economic transformation – Lopes
Ghana is considered one of the economic powers in Africa in recent times since the country started commercial oil production in 2010.
Indeed, official figures from government and international institutions have shown that the rising growth of the country’s economy was spurred by oil production.
Ghana was among the top-ten best economic performers in Africa between 2008 and 2012, with an annual growth rate of 7.4%, according to the 2013 Economic Report on Africa by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
Ghana was rated by the World Bank as the fastest growing economy in the world in 2012 and its economy is now classified as a low middle-income one, moving from a lower-income.
But the economy of Ghana is yet transform despite growth rate been stable for quiet some time now amidst some shocks.
According to the Executive Secretary of the ECA, Mr Carlos Lopes, Ghana is at the cross roads in transforming its economy that will have multiplier effects on the population which about 25 million.
In an exclusive interview with ghanabusinessnews.com in Accra October 23, 2013, Mr. Lopes said the country must now show an appetite in transforming the economy on the back of numerous natural resources and commodities it possesses.
“After more than two decades, growth with a certain degree of sustainability and above the average across African countries, Ghana has to show the appetite for transformation in its economy beyond what it has started,” Mr Lopes told ghanabusinessnews.com.
Mr Lopes, who was on a two-day official visit in Ghana to meet some government officials, said “The point am going to make is how to create conducive policies for that [transformation] such as value addition.”
After commending Ghana for such an impressive growth, Mr. Lopes, however, said “there is a bit of fragility in that growth”.
He explains “the fragility comes as a result of too much dependency on a number of commodities…in the case of Ghana it is gold, oil and cocoa and soon may be gas”.
Mr Lopes had hard words for the country’s declining or ‘already dead’ manufacturing sector. He stated that the performance of “Ghana on manufacturing or industrial sector is appalling. “There numbers are going in digressing ways. This is problematic because this is where the jobs are,” he added.
He continues “The pace of a real economy is the one that creates jobs”.
“Ghana should really use the opportunity of having oil to quickly transform its economy and that means promoting industrialisation,” Mr Lopes added.
According to a 113-page report published late June 2013, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Ghana is at a critical stage in its economic development.
According to the Fund, although poverty and social indicators have improved significantly, about a quarter of the population still lives below the poverty line, and demographic trends will require the creation of six to seven million jobs in the next 20 years to absorb new entrants into the labour market.
Mr. Lopes urged Ghana to create modern jobs in the formal sector for the youth.
By Ekow Quandzie
Watch the interview with Carlos Lopes
Mr. lopes has really spoken we as Ghanaians should there for be sober and acquire pure wisdom to make the economy grow. as he rightly said we should invest much in our industrializations especially using our natural resources . learned people shouldn’t be awarded base on what they know but on what they have done. is pathetic a professor in physics in Ghana only have certificates to show but no artifact to boast of .