Ghana must stop blaming Russia-Ukraine war for economic woes
Ghana must stop blaming Covid-19 and Russia war for our economic woes
Because COVID-19 and Russian-Ukrainian war is not the reason why;
1. Our debts ballooned from Ghc 122bn to over Ghc Ghc 600bn
2. Our Debt to GDP moved from 56% to over 100%
3. We had over 120 ministers at a point in time
4. Increase in government expenditures resulting from an increase in our regions from 10 to 16.
5. Huge expenditure allocations to the Office of the President.
6. Printing over GHC 80bn by BOG to support government expenditure and creating inflationary pressures.
7. Blacklisted from the international capital markets
8. Wasting substantial part of COVID 19 proceeds of GHC 30bn on 2020 election as supported by the audit findings by the Auditor General
9. Spending 25bn instead of Ghc 9bn on cleaning the financial sector
10. Creating new development authorities such as Coastal Development Authority etc
11. Having two to three Deputy CEOs in our public institutions.
12. Borrowed $11bn from the Eurobond market without any substantial evidence of investment into capital expenditure and income generating activities.
13. Poor nature of the free SHS, planting for food and jobs and other government policies.
14. Wasting money on a new Electoral Register when the old one made the President won the 2016 elections close to 1m votes.
15. Flooding the Presidency with a high staff level and ridiculous portfolios
16. High Youth unemployment
17. Paying commission to the Finance Minister’s DataBank whiles the nation continue to borrow and become financially distressed.
Indeed our economic woes emanates from:
1. Excessive Borrowings
2. Lack of fiscal prudence
3. Expansionary fiscal policy/ High levels of expenditure
4. Poor economic choices and improper implementation of same.
5. Wastage and corruption
6. No love for the country
It is heart breaking to know that even though the current government have had a total revenue of over Ghc 700bn from taxes and loans ;which is more than the revenue receipts that has accrued to any government; the current government have little to show in terms of capital expenditure and investment in critical sectors of the economy.
Because of the poor management of our resources, the country has to go through
1. High inflation periods
2. High unemployment and job losses
3. Low foreign exchange reserves.
4. Challenging balance of payment account
5. Depreciating currency regime
6. Low productivity
Thank you.