IEA calls for long-term national development plan for Ghana
Dr John K. Kwakye, a Senior Economist of the Institute of Economic Affairs, has called for a long-term National Development Plan that is based on a widely-consultative process to be implemented by all successive governments.
Dr Kwakye said the plan should contain broad socio-economic targets in order not to excessively tie government hands.
Dr Kwakye, who made the call at a news conference on Thursday, in Accra, on the state of the nation’s economy, said the country’s poor socio-economic performance was the result of lack of a national development plan.
He said the post-independence Development Plans lacked the autonomy and resources to carry out its work effectively and that these plans were overturned by succeeding governments.
Dr Kwakye said currently the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is about 40 billion dollars while her per capita GDP is about 1,500 dollars, adding that, the country still has some of the weakest socio-economic indicators among Middle-Income Countries.
He said the country had achieved fairly high rates of growth for several years and that the recent oil production has given further boost to growth.
Dr Kwakye said the fastest growing sub-sectors in the services sector are finance and ICT, but given that they tend to be high-tech or highly automated, they may not generate many jobs.
He said the public sector is already over-bloated and employment in the sector is virtually stagnant and that the private sector is unable to make up for the slack in public sector employment.
“To address the problem of graduate unemployment, school curricula should be reviewed so as to produce industry-relevant skills and make graduates more employable. University and industry must collaborate in this regard” he added.
He said monetary policy of the country is anchored by an inflation target with the Policy Rate (PR) as the operating instrument, adding that, at 16 per cent; the PR may look high compared to inflation of about 11 per cent.
Dr Kwakye said with lending rates at 30 per cent and the Treasury bill rate at 22 per cent, the PR may not be high enough, and that, the problem faced by monetary policy is that its transmission through the economy is slow as banks respond slowly to changes in the PR.
“This is the result of structural bottlenecks in the banking system, including low efficiency, low competition, and persistence of excess liquidity. Monetary policy is further constrained by fiscal dominance in the economy” he added.
He said the high cost of credit constitutes a stranglehold on the economy and has to be lowered, including through reduced government borrowing; improved efficiency in the banking system; reduced borrower risks and improved identification and credit reference mechanisms.
Dr Kwakye said overall poverty remains high and that urban poverty appears to be on the rise, and chronic poverty persists, adding that, the Ghana Living Standards Survey 5 (GLSS5) suggests that inequality is intensifying and when it continues, the socio-economic consequences can be stark.
He said in 2000, the United Nations set eight broad development goals, the MDGs, for developing countries to be achieved by 2015 and that Ghana has made progress in several areas, including achieving the income poverty target ahead of schedule.
He called for a comprehensive assessment of poverty incidence and disparities and the need for interventions to bridge north-south, urban-rural, and gender economic inequalities.
Source: GNA
This is a piece that policy makers should consider seriously. I’ve an additional opinion for our technocrats need to repackage in a more professional manner.
As a nation, our direction of development will make or unmake this country if we simply think that one should object to a developmental issue because a certain government will take credit for its initiation. The world order will have a telling effect on countries like ours where we only think borrowing and relying on the developed countries is the easier option.
From my point of view, I think that the EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM is the answer to this our crisis. Have we taken the needs of the nation as a whole into consideration before determining the type of system to adapt? Where are our priorities? Is in the construction industry( housing, roads), manufacturing, agriculture, health and what have you.
From the Basic, Second Cycle up to theTertiary must necessarily have a direction.the type of students we churn out can hardly mend a shoe, a broken chair, a falling wall, simple purification of water, the fixing of a simple fuse, etc. As a country, so called technocrats will have to be imported and eventually take away the better salaries and give better employment to foreigners whiles Ghanaians pick up menial jobs for construction. No wander we now have succeeded in breeding pen armed robbers, bullet armed robbers and ICT frauds. Do we need more Business Graduates in the system than artisans? How many market women need Accountants to manage their sales? There is simply no ceiling for certain types of courses in our schools.
The courses done in the 2nd Cycle schools are generally entirely academic as we speak. Sports, which Ghana was once known for , is currently going down and down as a result of the type of system we are running now. In our schools, nobody wants to do sports at the expense of academic work following the short periods in academic calendar at the Basic and Senior High Schools. Given the option, it would have requested that a separate class for special students for children with the right ages to play in age-restricted competitions. Soccer will die off gradually like athletics if pragmatic actions are not taken.
Where are we heading for? Certainly not for doom. The good people of Ghana should wake up to this call. I can foresee some day when some Ghanaians will rise and attack POLITICIANS, Chief Executives of some organisations and the RICH in society for their part of the cake.