Ghana needs efficient management of resources to develop

Madam Sheilla Kangberee, the Head of Export Diversification and Trade Facilitation at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, says the nation requires efficient management of capital and human resources to improve the lots of Ghanaians.

She said the nation had been endowed with many resources and should not rely on foreign aid to transform the economy and, thus, asked Ghanaians to support the President’s agenda of Ghana beyond aid.

She noted that the Government’s economic transformational agenda would only become a reality if there were well-structured programmes and policies in place to drive it.

Madam Kangberee said this at the launch of the Economic, Trade and Investment Bureau organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, in Accra.

The two-day event is on the theme: “The New Dynamics of Economic Diplomacy: Strategies to Maximise Investments, Trade, Culture and Tourism Potentials of Ghana.

Madam Kangberee said the Ministry had instituted plans and programmes geared towards supporting government’s economic transformational agenda.

They included enhancing the production capacity of the industries for domestic and export markets, creating a fair and transparent export-import regime, designing measures to open new markets and increase the volume of the non-traditional exports.

Others are re-structuring key institutions to become more competitive to leverage export opportunities, support access market for made-in-Ghana products, improve product quality of locally-manufactured products to meet international standards, as well as attract direct foreign investment in export oriented manufacturing sector.

Madam Kangberee expressed firm belief that these measures would help the nation to become a self-dependent economy that would ensure prosperity for all Ghanaians.

Mr Yoofi Grant, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre, during a panel discussion, called for attitudinal change by Ghanaians, adding that, there should be the right people at the right positions to implement government policies.

He said the Fiscal Administration Act required that persons in charge of institutions that use State funds should be held responsible for any financial malfeasance.

“For instance, if I, Yoofi Grant, the head of GIPC, spends more than my budget, I can go to jail, especially when it is proven that I spent the funds recklessly,” he emphasised.

Mr Grant expressed the belief that the implementation of the national database and digital addressing system would ensure that every individual in the country could easily be traced, which would ensure sanity in business transactions.

He said that promoting digital economy and removing human interface in public transactions would reduce bribery and corruption, which would also improve quality service delivery to the citizenry.

However, he said, all these measures would only be achieved, if Ghanaians change their attitudes and exhibit positive behaviours in line with government’s transformational agenda.