Is Nkrumah dictating Ghana’s economic policy from the grave?

Over the mature tenure of my 41 years of existence, I have become ever more convinced that Ghana’s dream of becoming a beacon of democracy and development must necessarily hinge on freeing up the competitive business spirits of its citizens. To do so, there are features of this nation’s idiosyncrasies that must be toppled.

Historical chains

Having inherited a government with the trappings of the free market, Ghana became increasingly pro-East with its attendant central planning under President Nkrumah.

As a result, our commodities, education, industries, construction, aviation, employment, transportation, media, to name a few, were largely, if not wholly, under the aegis of the central government.

With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the fallouts of Perestroika, China’s reforms and the increasing global acceptance of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand”, Fabian socialism has lost its quiddity, except in the minds of those who keep mouthing it without much action.

Even the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) Labour Party under Tony Blair and later Gordon Brown would speak of a “New Labour” which embraced market forces with unpredicted fervour. In the United States (US), the Democratic Party’s Bill Clinton would call it “The Third Way”.

Vestiges of socialism of the 1960s

Today, many of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) of the 1960s remain under the iron grip of central government despite the oft-repeated evidence of the shambolic performance of an overwhelming majority of them.

A few were divested, with hardly any evidence of benefits to us, not so much because of a belief in the free markets but as a result of our obeisance to the prescriptions of foreign and international institutions.

The ghost of central planning has ensured that these SOEs, whose shares are held entirely by the government, are used as instruments of political patronage. Friends, cronies, relatives and party members are assured of seats on the boards of these establishments when electoral power swings in their favour.

They are not held to any standards of efficiency and are at liberty to operate with freewheeling nonchalance.

They were never intended to be run on the measured rods of the hands of corporate governance with a diverse collection of the best business and governance brainpower.

Their guide was the Marxist economic theory and the capital market was never in sight for them.

Ghana Stock Exchange

It was not until the 1990s that Ghana set up a stock market. Thus, the driving principles behind the raising of capital, corporate governance, diffusion/dispersion of shareholding, shareholder activism, the constant improvement of corporate law, among others, are yet to take a firm hold.

Where the government has dared to participate in the affairs of the stock market, it has ensured that it retains massive controlling shareholder status.

That way, it still calls the shots with respect to the appointment of directors and management whose qualifications are based more on ‘right standing’ than competitively determined competence.

In the end, citizen participation on the bourse is minimal, their participation in decision making is non-existent, the alignment of the desires of shareholders (non-government) with directors/management remains a pipe-dream and the stock market has not become the linchpin it must be to the economy.

The result is a palpable unattractiveness of the Ghana Stock Exchange to the biggest corporations in Ghana and the disincentive to investors who in the absence of free-market choice of corporate leadership cannot bet on any great returns on their investment.

Economy

An economy that imprisons the efficient market and denies the citizenry frontline participation in it does not grow in leaps and bounds. It does not create wealthy citizens. Its private sector is small and not influential and government continues to be the employer of the overwhelming droves of its workforce.

That economy is unable to provide infrastructural expansion to enable businesses to push the possibilities of their productive frontiers. Tax evasion becomes the order of the day as the informal sector balloons as a way to avoid the taxman.

Only a minutiae of the workforce pay tax and so it is not surprising that since 2011, Ghana’s tax to gross domestic product (GDP) has consistently hovered between 17 and 19 per cent and is edging below the lower end in 2017.

Investors will not touch such an economy with a long pole unless they are promised markedly high returns that pressurise the government to embark on “smart borrowing” and not-so-smart borrowing sometimes for and on behalf of companies which should be allowed to deal on the strength of their own sets of financial statements.

To make matters worse, even the right of centre party relies on economic populism and the precepts of Fabian socialism (one district one this, and that free this free that, etc.) in order to please a people whose mindset is fixated on state largesse.

When a social democratic party hands over the baton to a “free market” party, the citizenry struggle to “spot the difference” in strategies such as the unbridled proclivity to issue bonds to raise revenue.

At over $4 billion, Ghana is the African country with the highest Eurobond debt, with a poor tax to GDP ratio (currently between 15 per cent and 16 per cent) and around 70 per cent debt to GDP ratio, excluding its recent Energy Sector Bond.

Since the economy is not innately attractive to investors, beyond the high interest rates on bonds, the government finds itself scrapping critical taxes and granting exemptions to wealthy companies to keep their interests alive. This contributes to the low revenue ‘capture’.

Way forward

Change will only come if we want it. Our political parties must give us the best all-round persons as flag bearers. Our central bank governors and each and every member of the board of the Bank of Ghana must have formal education to the highest levels (at least post-graduate) in finance/economics/business with proven track records.

Our finance ministers must be highly educated in economics/finance of the proper kind and be supported by the finest brains.

Our presidents must choose competence, knowledge, training and expertise over petty considerations.

They must set in motion the process to shed central planning and allow citizens to part-own, choose corporate leadership, run and manage those companies that the government currently controls with perilous consequences.

In the process, we may not always need to raise revenue through debt but equity by way of releasing shareholding in say the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Ghana Oil Company (GOIL) and the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) with the attendant infusion of the competencies of the private sector.

An economy that imprisons the efficient market and denies the citizenry frontline participation in it does not grow in leaps and bounds. The example of Colombia with respect to Ecopetrol’s 20 per cent shares may serve as a useful guide with modifications to suit our circumstances.

Is President Akufo-Addo the man to ignite the untapped embers of the free market or must we wait for another government, which professes an unwavering belief in the free market economy?

The writer holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree in Corporate Law, Finance & Governance Concentration (Harvard Law School) with cross-registration in Boards of Directors & Corporate Governance (Harvard Business School)