Opinions of Tuesday, 23 March 2021

Columnist: Joel Savage

Ghana needs a plan to lay a strong foundation for flexible sustainable economy

Cocoa farming is common in Ghana Cocoa farming is common in Ghana

Free education in Ghana has been implemented; this is an opportunity for low-income parents or Ghanaians to educate their children. However, the success of a country doesn’t depend on free education; the Ghanaian government needs to lay a strong foundation for stable and sustainable economic growth.

Ghana is in deep crisis but many Ghanaians pretend they can’t see the dark tunnel the country is entering because of politics of greed, selfishness, and hate.

Instead of doing something about it many Ghanaians are aiding, abetting, and promoting bad government in Ghana rather than steering the country from economic doom.

At times, I wonder why Ghana politics, apart from corruption, is full of hate, tribalism, and nepotism, yet there are Ghanaians that don’t care about that and want the country to be successful, while there is no country that can thrive on a strong foundation when facing such catastrophic social problems.

Ghana is a country rich in resources that can lay a solid foundation towards sustainable economic growth but only a few Ghanaians leaders have been able to achieve that, therefore, we need to find out what are the problems preventing sustainable economic growth in the country?

Every country depends on its natural resources for development. Ghana ships tons of raw materials, including timber, cocoa, gold, etc, to foreign countries but hardly does the country accounts for the proceeds or the money earned from the exportation of the raw materials.

Since a large amount of money from exportation earn up in private banks, the country lacks effective developments, which also affect the economy. Corruption has increased the high rate of unemployment in Ghana, leading to a sick and unstable economy.

Every Ghanaian leader or political aspirant promises to fight against corruption, yet when they are given the power to rule, they become more corrupt than their predecessors.

No politician takes responsibility for anything in the country, even when caught red-handed in corruption scandals, they will still deny it.

Ghana takes billions of dollars from the export of its raw materials but the economy never improves, the fact that the country is under heavy debts.

The money needed for development in the country either goes into private banks or used to pay foreign loans, thus; leading to the deprivation of development and a troubled economy in the country.

When a country faces such problems, the common people are those that suffer.

Ghana shouldn’t have been in such an economic crisis, taking into consideration the rich resources in the country, yet I need to be clear on this subject, no one should expect a better economy in Ghana soon or never, since governments can’t do without loans and corruption in the country.