Former Deputy Finance Minister and Nhyiaeso MP, Dr Stephen Amoah, has called for deep structural reforms to strengthen Ghana’s economy and prevent the country from returning to another International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.1
His comments come as Ghana continues discussions on fiscal sustainability following its exit from the IMF-supported programme and transition to the Policy Coordination Instrument (PCI).
Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News, Dr Amoah said Ghana’s economic challenges cannot be addressed through blanket expenditure cuts without proper economic analysis.
“There are so many fundamental anomalies that we need to fix first. The way we even embark on expenditure control, to me, I disagree. You cannot just wake up and say you are cutting expenditure by 30%—by what econometric analysis?” he questioned.
He said government must first identify which expenditures are critical to economic growth before making cuts.
“Which of the items do not have strong correlation with our GDP such that when we cut them it won’t impact us?” he asked.
Dr Amoah also criticised government borrowing from the domestic market at high interest rates, saying it crowds out private-sector investment and undermines productivity.
“Governments most of the times borrow on our domestic market at a high rate than the private sector; this thing is destroying this country,” he stated.
He identified corruption, wastage and inefficiencies across public institutions as other major structural problems that need to be addressed.
“Wastage, corruption at all levels and in all departments,” he added.
The Nhyiaeso MP further called for urgent investment in agriculture to reduce Ghana’s dependence on imports, particularly products that can be produced locally.
“We need to quickly come back and deal concisely with issues of agriculture to the extent that importation of even fruit juice that won’t require complex value chains we deal with them,” he said.
Dr Amoah said addressing these structural weaknesses is necessary to strengthen the economy, reduce vulnerabilities and prevent Ghana from returning to the IMF for financial support.
- This article was first published on CitiNewsRoom.com by Juliana Odame Asare ↩︎