Ghana's economic albatross; Let's stop dancing on our child's grave
The Ghanaian economy is as flat as a pancake and yet the behaviour of the managers of the economy — the government, the central bank, and to some extent labour organisations, professionals and the intellectual faculty — towards its resuscitation is reminiscent of a person who wakes up every morning to dance on the grave of his dead child, an abominable attitude that bespeaks insensitivity.
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The trajectory of our economic recovery remains exceedingly weak partly because some aspects of the economic and financial policies put in place to stem the tide show that our suit-clad officials at the helm of affairs do not have an iota of street knowledge about how the huge army of Ghanaian small and medium-scale traders, who pay a significant portion of taxes to the government and take care of an untold number of families, go about shopping across the globe.
For example, when our local importers go to buy from Asia, they don't buy from one company. They pick and choose from different shops in different towns and villages. That is why most of them don't understand the directives concerning letters of credit before they travel. The gulf of ignorance between them and the central bank policies on how to transfer monies is wide. If our fiscal policy is a straight-jacket textbook definition which defies the reality on the ground, what you get in return is fraud and corruption.
Thursday, July 24, 2014, marked two years since the demise of former President John Evans Atta Mills. On this day, it was expected that Ghanaians would reflect, with some sobriety, on the legacy of the former leader. Unfortunately, however, this was not to be. The Trades Union Congress, its affiliates and other labour organisations chose to organise nation-wide demonstrations to pressurise the government to meet all kinds of demands, most tangibly, for a more effective measure to be put in place to arrest the decline in the national economy, and to improve the climate for doing business in Ghana.
Seeking issues
Why the labour unions chose to “desecrate” the day with demonstrations is an issue about which some observers wish to “insinuate” mischief over the intents of the organisers. Was it to counter efforts to hoist the legacy of the late President John Evans Atta Mills, or was it just coincidental or just another day on which to tell the NDC-led government “enough is enough”?
That is where our political discourse has come to. Admittedly, however, before and during the demonstration ‘helluva’, much attention was focused on the economic downturn and its bewildering hardships brought on majority of Ghanaians, as well as the local industry.
The quagmire in which the economy is stuck has been deepening over time. The fizzling started two years ago. To me, the Supreme Court action on the 2012 general election affected investor-confidence; this notwithstanding, today’s story indicates that the “fundamentals” of the national economy are all flawed, with a foray of challenges reinforcing each other for a downward spiral.
The child is dead
Since the cedi took a plunge against the dollar two years ago, it has failed to show signs of recovery in spite of the interventions by the Bank of Ghana. Rather than induce recovery, the forex interventions of the Central Bank simply reined in businesses which had no tax-breaks or retention privileges. Businesses owned by our local entrepreneurs have been at the punitive end of measures rolled out so far by the government and Bank of Ghana.
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Characterised by inflation, surging increases in prices of fuel, food, coupled with power curtailment affecting production, increasing taxes, curbing economic activities with increasing need for a bailout; why is it so difficult? We pay our electricity bills upfront and yet sleep in darkness. Incredible, isn't it? After paying property rates to the local assemblies we again have to pay for the collection of refuse to private refuse collectors who pick the refuse at their convenience. Double taxation, isn't it?
Medical doctors in Ghana aren't thrilled when they see patients dying from simple ailments, but they need tools to work with! I hope the next doctors’ strike would solely put pressure on government to equip the hospitals, and not just ask for higher pay. Our maternal health units are struggling to cope with labour complications and pregnancies while child health units and theatre facilities for obstetric surgical interventions are not readily available.
Taking turns to dance on the grave
Metaphorically, the economy is dead; let’s not dance on the grave as if nothing has happened. The dancing on the grave by the protagonists — the government, trade unions and our professional bodies — must cease. They must rethink their decisions to further disrupt the economy only to exact from it whatever benefits they wish.
When the labour aristocrats in some European countries led their workers to extort all manner of benefits and working conditions from governments and industry, little were they aware of how those gains were being funded.
When the day of accountability caught up with those nations, it was the working class that crushed together with their gains and their savings under the might of the pressure to repay the nation’s loans. With the luxury of hindsight, the plight of these nations in Europe suggests prudence and sensitivity towards Ghana's true economic might.
Our debt burden is growing steadily with each passing day. Today, the nation stands on a precipice, expecting a bailout. It wouldn’t be for gratis. Let us all step off the grave of our dead child and rather come up with result-oriented policies instead of the rhetoric as a policy response.
President Mahama must thoughtfully consider the economic conditions we are in now and rethink the rhetoric policies spelled out so far, reboot the structures designed to kick-start the economy if he wants to achieve his four thematic areas of priority spelled out in his 2013 state-of-the-nation address to promote his party’s philosophy of "Better Ghana Agenda" or the NDC may need a new slogan other than the "Better Ghana".
The writer is the Superintendent Bishop, Jesus Generation Ministries