Media helped create narrative that EMT must be headed by an ‘economic guru’ – Prof Kobby Mensah

Media helped create narrative that EMT must be headed by an ‘economic guru’ – Prof Kobby Mensah

Political Marketing Analyst and Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana (UG), Professor Kobby Mensah, has stated that the media played a major role in creating the narrative that the leader of the Economic Management Team (EMT) must have economic competency.

According to him, the media “hyped” the narrative that the head of the EMT had to be one with economic competency or knowledge in the run-up to the 2016 elections when the incumbent Vice President then the running mate of President Akufo-Addo was sold to Ghanaians as the “economic messiah”.

“The EMT in the past was not necessarily headed by the Vice President, it could be anybody who had a strong grip on the country’s economic issues.

“We also never had it in the past that an economic guru had to be the Vice President because as you know, most of the past Vice Presidents did not have economic background.

“This whole idea started in the run-up to the 2016 elections when the NPP sold Dr Bawumia as the ‘economic messiah’ and the media contributed to its popularity without really questioning why it was necessary to have a Vice President with ‘economic competency’ lead the EMT particularly when it wasn’t so in the past,” he remarked.

He made the assertion speaking during the NorvanReports and Economic Governance Platform X Space Discussion on the topic, “Should Ghana have an Economic Management Team or an Economic Advisory Council?”.

The Economic Management Team (EMT) is a sub-committee under the Cabinet headed by the President.

There have been calls for the repeal of the EMT in view of the fact that the EMT has no ‘power’ to enforce recommendations it makes to Cabinet.

The acceptance and subsequent implementation of recommendations made by the EMT is the prerogative of the Cabinet.

The call for the repeal of the EMT is premised on the argument that the current EMT structure has no constitutional mandate and that it should be renamed to an Economic Advisory Council (EAC) with the constitutional mandate to enforce economic recommendations it makes to Cabinet.