The excessive concentration of political power in the executive arm of Government in Accra is having an adverse effect on the growth of our capital market. Everything is centralized such that every project in the country has ... read full comment
The excessive concentration of political power in the executive arm of Government in Accra is having an adverse effect on the growth of our capital market. Everything is centralized such that every project in the country has to come from the Government in Accra. Our sub-national Governments, namely Regions, Districts and Municipalities have therefore been relegated to powerless positions. We now have the capital market but it cannot grow it or make it dynamic as we would like to. Simply because none of our Regions, Districts and Municipalities can raise the necessary long-term financing from the capital market through the issuance of long-term bonds required to finance their own infrastructure projects - water supply, roads, electricity, schools, ICT, housing etc. We need to give these sub-national Governments some autonomy for them not only to plan and budget but more importantly, to be able to raise most of the financing required for the execution of their own development projects. They do not have always wait on the central Government in Accra to come to their aid. There are long-term funding from pension funds, insurance deposits, mutual funds and investment sourced for all these types of public/municipal projects but because of this centralized government we have in our country, the funds remain untapped. In an era of low donor inflows, we could use our own resources to achieve greater development. Our projects will be well managed because the funds used for implementing them will not be viewed as "government money". There will be more transparency and accountability on the part of Government authorities as the projects will be expected to be revenue-generating so as to to pay bond holders interest income semi-annually or annually on their investments. Moreover the financiers/investors will be monitoring such projects on a continuous basis. This will go a long way to stem corruption in the country. There will be more jobs, more wealth created (through infrastructure development, rehabilitation and maintenance) and general growth in all sectors of the economy, including the capital market itself - The lists of benefits goes on - simply dynamism in the country. Let's change our constitution and devolve powers to our sub-national governments to make this a reality.
The excessive concentration of political power in the executive arm of Government in Accra is having an adverse effect on the growth of our capital market. Everything is centralized such that every project in the country has ...
read full comment