Commentary

President to fix Ghana’s ailing economy

By Dr. Nana Sifa Twum, a Media and Communication Consultant

The government of Ghana, like many other governments in developing countries, is faced with severe socio-economic challenges and the way to help alleviate the citizenry from the economic downturn facing them. In recent times, Ghanaians have been agitating over the high cost of living, emanating from multiple factors, including external and internal.

To this end, the Akufo-Addo-led government organized a retreat, primarily to find ways and means of helping solve some of the identified challenges. The said gathering of members of government was the first of the quarterly retreats for 2022 held at the Peduase Lodge at Aburi in the Eastern Region.

The Government has also met almost all stakeholders of the national economy, the driver unions, market women and traders, among others to solicit their inputs in helping to bring the economy back on track. Unemployment, illegal small-scale mining affecting water supplies, poor roads and inadequate health infrastructure, have dominated the media and social discourse, of which fuel pricing is paramount. This obviously affects the national economy from all fronts.

Sometime in March this year, the price of gasoline in Ghana stood at 8.62 Ghana cedis per liter, corresponding to roughly 1.21 U.S. dollars. Today, it is over 18 Ghana cedis per litre. The rampant escalating fuel prices in the county has been of grave concern to virtually every citizen. This is coupled with the uncontrollable depreciation of the national currency, the Cedi.

As of 28th February, 2022, the Ghana cedi was said to be the worst-performing currency in the world after Sri-Lanka depreciating by 9.6 percent within the first two months of 2022. According to the Bank of Ghana, the Ghana cedi has, so far in 2022, depreciated by about 17.2 percent to the US dollar. This is against an appreciation of 0.5% during the same period in 2021. Figures from the Central Bank this month indicate that the cedi lost 0.3 percent and 9 percent in value to the American currency in January, 2022 and February 2022, leaving us in a helpless situation. Last week, the cedi further depreciated by 3.3 percent, down 11.2750 per dollar, in response to the government talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that may involve debt restructuring. The country’s GDP, therefore, has been severely affected. According to Trading Economics, the nation’s GDP stood at 58.00 USD Billion at the end of 2021.

According to Global Macro models and analysts’ expectations in the long-term, Ghana’s GDP is projected to trend around 64 Billion USD this year. Real GDP growth was estimated to decelerate from 6.5% in 2019 to 1.7% in 2020, due to the slump in oil prices and weakened global economic activity.

The labour unrest and apparent display of dissatisfaction by workers due to the hardships have been rampant in these times. These are often in the form of strikes and street demonstrations, which disrupt regular businesses. What is fascinating in all these is the zeal, fortitude and enthusiasm of the President, Nana Akufo-Addo. His admission of the country’s terrible situation is refreshing and provides some encouragement to the people he leads. The President has on a number of occasions, exhibited strong determination to fix the dangling economy.His demonstration of resilience and boldness is a significant sign of leadership.

President Akufo-Addo, during these difficult times, has expressed his desire and optimism to bring the country’s economy back on track and to ensure it rebound soonest, despite the prevailing economic challenges. He is reported to have said that despite the many obstacles that confronted the country, he expressed confidence in the can-do spirit of the Ghanaian to overturn the economic circumstances and challenges around.

The nation’s leader has not thrown his hands in despair amid the several hardships in the country. It is also for this reason that the President once again assured the country of his commitment to work hard to resolve the economic challenges facing the country in the short and long term, to ease the burden on all people living in the country, when he addressed the nation yesterday on the true state of the Ghana’ s economic situation.

Good leaders consistently demonstrate and lead their nations through difficult times and effectively meet set goals. In his broadcast to the nation last night, the President’s acknowledgment of the crises and his commitment to solving the economic problems of the country was amazing. He demonstrated faith buttressed by the words in the good old book, the Bible, in Luke, chapter 1:37, which says that “with God, nothing will be impossible.

If God is able to create the universe, there is nothing He cannot do. Let this faith, hope, confidence, resilience, zeal, fortitude and self-assurance of the President become practical to deliver the country from this economic mess.