Ghana in a dance for life
We do not need a sorcerer to tell us that the country and the people are at the moment in really difficult times.
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Take a look around you and you notice that life and living it is departing from the normal. In fact, it was as a result of such knowledge that the Senchi Economic Form was organised to bring on board myriad of ideas capable of taking this country out of the doldrums.
We await the outcomes of the meeting which we pray are meaningful and will function usefully. If I were part of that meeting my major concern would have centered on what the experts think of the energy sector in its present state.
The energy sector for me remains the key aspect of the economy that is giving the country a hefty blow. Because of unreliable energy supply, a number of industries both small and large, companies and individual establishments have either collapsed or are on their way out with hundreds of lives put on suspension.
We all believed that with the construction of the Bui Hydroelectric Dam the precarious energy situation the country was in before now would pass. Even the President believed so. But we have been proved wrong.
The Bui Dam has not been of much help lately, maybe it would pick up steam later. But the lives that are being lost and put asunder do not have the luxury to wait. They urgently need to feed and put clothes on their backs.
Over the years, there have been talks on venturing into other sources of energy provision including embarking on solar and wind energy. Let us not give them up since the two sources have an inexhaustible pull. The problem with Bui as we have been told is that the level of the river keep falling rendering it incapable of operating at full blast.
The Bank of Ghana’s directive over the usage of the dollar though an initiative that has merit, it needs saying also that a second look be taken of the directive in view of some heat that it has brought into the economy. For instance, drug manufacturing companies complain of how difficult it is becoming for them to import those components of the drug that they have to get from abroad.
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Not only them, second-hand spare parts dealers at Abossey Okai in Accra, arguably the headquarters of traded vehicle spare parts in the country, are also complaining of how difficult it has become for them since the directive on the dollar. Government as it were would have to restore confidence in the economy.
Many Ghanaians cringe at the thought of an IMF bail out to fix the economy. But one would have to agree with Dr Patrick Awuah of Ashesi University who in an interview with Joy FM observed that if we were not able to fix our problems then the IMF would fix it for us.
Ghana will have to take some tough decisions to pull this country through. It is based on this that decisions reached by the 400 or so participants at the Senchi meeting would have been set out quickly for the Ghanaian public to also make their input and rolled out for implementation. Time is running out and we have to act quickly.
Any delay in making the outcomes of the Senchi forum known to the public only goes to give vent to public cynicism that the forum did not amount to anything.
Other critical areas that the government needs to look carefully at are disbursements to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies. Money meant to propel development in the rural areas are not forthcoming thereby stalling growth in these areas.
There is also a problem with the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme. Presently, disbursements of money owed to service providers under the scheme has not been forthcoming, with several service providers threatening to stop providing services.
Problems facing these two institutions of state makes it difficult for them to stimulate and sustain growth in their spheres of operation. There must be new approaches that will allow these institutions to execute their mandate effectively and make people have confidence in state institutions.
The country once described as the golden star of Africa is at the crossroads. The country would need to re-invent itself by cutting out corruption and ensure judicious use of its financial resources. We must as well cut out wastage since now every pesewa counts.
It is expensive now to live in Ghana and the effect is being felt everywhere. Let’s quickly endeavour to get our act together to save the motherland from decline.
In fact, nothing tells the story of the country’s downturn more succinctly than our roads; they are terrible. Could there be a plan in the meantime to work on that quickly while we store to tackle other projects? It’s not only worse in the countryside but in the cities as well.