Upper middle income status is possible – Economist

A retired international diplomat and economist, Michael Yaw Offei has said that the current difficult situation Ghana’s economy finds itself in is not a conclusive doom for the country.

In an interview with journalists in Tema, the revered diplomat said the World Bank’s projection of the country improving from a lower middle-income status to becoming an upper middle-income status by 2037 is possible.

“However, there are pragmatic measures that we must consciously take in order to reach that promised land. The proper mainstreaming of digital technology, especially Artificial Intelligence, is how the country’s domestic economy functions. This is the direction that the world is going and we must either get on that bus or risk being left behind", he said.

For the government to create jobs, he suggested the government should move the unemployed into higher productivity firms and sectors and transform them through trade, urbanization, and connectivity.

“Here as well, digital technology has a critical role to play”, he said.

Yaw Offei has worked with both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
World Bank (WB) in the past.

He said that the current economic situation of Ghana's economy makes it imperative that all citizens, irrespective of their political, religious, or other persuasions put aside their differences and put their shoulders to the wheel.

"We have no choice; it’s either we band together and progress together or we sink together. To reach the goal of 2037 we must also support more inclusive private sector development. This can be done if we leverage the financial sector to facilitate firm expansion, technology adoption, and innovation”, he said.

Ghana, he said will also have to work intentionally towards enabling long-term inclusive growth.

“To do this, we will need to really be tougher on macro-fiscal stability, improve natural resources management and revenue mobilization, and fund reforms for economic transformation”, he added.