Features
Any justification for National Development Bank in Ghana?
“The Development Bank is going to play a very important part in the rapid economic transformation of Ghana, following the onset of COVID-19”.
These words came from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during at the signing ceremony on Wednesday, May 19, 2021, when he held a meeting with the President of European Development Bank (EDB), Dr Werner Hoyer, as part of his official visit to Belgium.
According to President Akufo-Addo, the design and operation of the Development Bank Ghana (DBG) in Ghana had been on the drawing board over the past two years and when established, would satisfy the highest standards, scrutiny and best practices of development banks across the world.
He further assured that the €170 million facility being provided by European Investment Bank (EIB) for the establishment of the Development Bank Ghana (DBG), “signals the determination of the country to continue partnering with the EU to continue to finance other projects in the pipeline as the country works to recover from the impact of COVID-19 as well as assist in the rapid recovery of the Ghanaian economy from the ravages of the pandemic.”
Any need for a National Development Bank?
One question that comes up immediately is whether there is the need for a bank for developmental purposes when, indeed, other banks are already operating in the country. It has even been argued that to prevent the collapse of certain banks and strengthen the banking sector, the government in collaboration with the Bank of Ghana, recently sanitised the sector to ensure that it is strengthened up for business in the country.
And if this is the case, why should another bank be established if it is aimed at promoting the same economic development that we are all seeking?
Development Banks and economic growth
Generally, development banks serve as important instruments to promote economic growth. They usually do this by providing credit and a wide range of advisory as well as capacity building programmes for stakeholders. The stakeholders here include households, small and medium enterprises and even large private companies. Usually, the financial needs of the huge private companies are not sufficiently served by private commercial banks nor by local capital markets.
A National Development Bank, therefore, comes in as a specialist bank to provide medium and long-term lending facilities for both the private and public sectors. The objective of a development bank is to serve public interest rather than earning profits. This means that a development bank provides financial assistance for both private and public sector institutions.
Crucial role in rural capital formation
It is also the aim of a national development bank to play a crucial role in rural capital formation. Indeed, development banks are able in this case to bring in dispersed savings of rural people through different deposit schemes after which loans, based on the savings, are distributed to rural people to begin productive ventures in line with their self-sufficient economic activities.
It is for the purpose of all these that the Ministry of Finance and the European Investment Bank have signed an agreement for the provision of a €170 million facility. The purpose of the facility, as pointed out already, is meant for the establishment of a new national bank to be known as the Development Bank Ghana (DBG).
This bank will apply stringent investment conditions aimed at safeguarding financial sustainability, transparency, environmental and social accountability. The ultimate purpose is to promote job creation, and sustainable economic growth.
Are our banks too many?
With regard to the argument that many banks already exist so there is no need for any new national bank, the point must be made that a national development bank is a specialised financial institution set up to provide medium-term and long-term lending facilities. Here, medium-term facilities include three to five years programmes while long-term ones last from five to 10 years or even more.
It is these medium and long-term facilities that make finances available for institutions to carry out developmental programmes for the ultimate benefits of a country. For this reason, there is any justification for such a national bank if Ghana is to operate independently and be able to re-structure its economy in line with Ghana Beyond Aid strategy.
There is no doubt that the establishment of this national bank signifies long-term ambitious financing programme that seeks to gather finances for numerous sectors in the economy. The sectors include manufacturing, agriculture, agro-processing, housing sub-sectors, mortgages and Information, Communication, Technology (ICT), among others. Positive developments in these sectors are meant to generate ambitious initiatives to unlock funds in these sectors and improve domestic revenue mobilisation.
Economic growth and transformation
It is such initiatives that will propel growth and transformation in various sectors of the economy. Without such transformation, the country will remain producer of raw materials for other countries and receiver of tiny incomes from the developed countries, thereby perpetuating the status quo since independence in line with the negative ambitious objectives of the colonial master.
It is not easy to break away from this cycle of poverty, but it calls for determination and realistic programmes of development based on a transformational agenda to extricate a developing country like Ghana from the shackles of control emanating from our master-servant colonial experience. Unpleasant as it is, this fight for economic independence should have come earlier than today but none of our past leaders was able to put up this economic fight since, even if they had come to this realisation earlier on, it would not be easy to overcome these economic challenges.
Overcoming structural economic problems
Over the years, many Ghanaian scholars and politicians have been able to rightly point out the economic disparities between Ghana and other colonised countries, on one hand, and their previous colonial masters, on the other. It is a fight that is on-going and is, therefore, never too late for the right things to be done and to correct all wrong doings in the past.
If President Akufo-Addo’s administration has come to this realisation and taken up steps aim at righting all the economic wrongs, then this positive agenda ought to be supported by all the political parties, especially those who claim to be social democrats and are also seeking independence of all colonial appendages.
Right-wing party and economic development
A right-wing party like the New Patriotic Party (NPP), led by President Akufo-Addo has put in the right measures to salvage the country from its long-standing colonial appendages and make it truly independent. If this is the case, then there is no time to waste on the part of any political party but to move in quickly to support this positive agenda of transforming the national economy and making it truly independent.
At the time of independence, Kwame Nkrumah rightly declared that our independence would not have any meaning unless it was linked up with the whole of the African continent. While this is true to some extent, we should know that political independence is what was achieved and that the second phase of the battle is to struggle for our economic independence in line with Ghana Beyond Aid strategy.
If Ghana’s independence is to become realistically meaningful, then its economic independence cannot be compromised on any grounds for which reason the national development bank, with its positive agenda, must be implemented in a realistic manner for the attainment of our national aspirations which has been dwelling in us in form of “God bless our homeland Ghana, and make us great and strong”.
By Dr Kofi Amponsha-Bediako
THE journalist is a hunter. He goes after human rats and grasscutters personified, matters about whom he can salt and spice and present as news. The fatter and juicier the catch, the better, because sensation is essentially our cup of tea.
Our job is to sell news and sell it in grand style.
Because the journalist is a hunter and is created with a special kind of nose for sniffing out news, he is usually not welcome in many places. He is seen as someone who has been born to make people uncomfortable.
The problem is that some people don’t want things written about them even if it is promotional and favourable. When it entails publishing their pictures alongside the story, they are doubly scared.
“Please, don’t use my picture. People will think I’ve got money and come for loan,” someone told me.
Anyhow, journalists are seen as intruders, undesirables, born with plenty of okro in the mouth; maybe some also in the nose. Some of my friends are no longer too close because they fear I’d give them full coverage in the Sikaman Palava column. Ha ha ha! What a funny world!
Well, people like my Uncle, Sir Kofi Jogolo, my former classmate and born-mathematician, Kwame Korkorti, and ex-football star cum human-salamander Kofi Kokotako don’t mind featuring in the hilarious inches of this column. Kofi Owuo alias Death By Poverty is one personality who has to be mentioned in this palaver.
These are people who are going to live long, primarily because they see the world as one big ball of fun. When Kwame Korkorti was told that his dear mother was dead at home, he smiled and asked the bearer of the message whether his mother had cooked the afternoon meal before claiming she was dead. Until her death, Korkorti ate his lunch at his mother’s end.
When my Uncle Kofi Jogolo was picked and lost 1,500 dollars and a good amount of Sikaman currency, he didn’t lament the loss. Instead he was amused. In fact, he was almost glad about it, because he grinned from ear to ear, stroked his delicate moustache and congratulated the thief, adding that “He is smarter than I am.” Yeah, Jogolo is the man who employs a Swedish barber to trim his moustache.
And when Kofi Kokotako was unemployed and was nearly hit by an articulated truck, he called the driver a fool. “The idiot should have killed me,” he said to me. “Didn’t he know I was unemployed and suffering?”
Today, Kokotako is employed as a Reverend and is not doing badly at all. Thanks to the regular silver collection.
And what about Kofi Owuo, the celebrated poor man. His wife left him not because he was poor, but because he swore in front of her that he would never prosper.
The following dawn the wife packed bag and baggage and went back to her parents and told them all about her husband’s alliance with poverty. Her parents were bewildered and called the alliance unholy. They had no option than to send back Owuo’s drinks to end the marriage.
Kofi Owuo alias Death By Poverty did not contest the issue. He was more engrossed thinking about how to become poorer than to contest what he called a frivolous matter. The wife could go to hell, he said. These are people longevity smiles upon. Nothing worries them.
Getting back to talking about journalists. I’d say that anywhere there is journalism, the issue of press freedom is not too far away. Is the press free? That’s one question foreigners want answer to when they are on visit.
Well, journalists celebrate a yearly WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY to drum home the idea of press freedom as a very important thing in the practice of journalism.
This year’s was celebrated almost a fortnight ago but people didn’t see much of us because we are normally not good celebrants. We should have mounted a float to roam the entire capital, dancing asaboni to brass band music just like PTC did recently.
Although journalists are known to be very good dancers because they walk very much, on that day, they were all busy writing. It was the Minister of Information, Mr Kofi Totobi Quakyi who saved the day by addressing a forum organised to mark the day.
He is a man I’ve always admired since his radical university days. He spoke much on press freedom, cautioning the press not to abuse the freedom granted by the Fourth Republican constitution, but to use it for the progress of society.
Well, press freedom has been defined by many journalists as the freedom to ‘write nonsense’. This definition is not quite accurate. I asked one staff reporter to define press freedom. It took him fifteen minutes to put up something.
“Press freedom is the freedom that is enjoyed by the press that enables journalists to publish or broadcast any kind of material so long as it is absolutely true, is not libelous and slanderous, and is not against the national interest.”
I gave him eight out of 10, a straight A. I guess every journalist is old enough to know that certain things he or she writes is for or against the national interest. We certainly must guard against writing against the national interest; that is very important.
There is also the question of criticising government. The government can be criticized, so long as the criticisms are genuine and the President and his ministers are not insulted and called names. Let us criticize, but let us do it decently so that the journalistic profession can be revered, and its nobility acknowledged. We are not war mongers, are we?
One area in which journalists are not spoken well of is the complaint that they misquote people. Journalists sometimes misquote people, but in four out of five complaints it turns out that nobody is misquoted after all.
When we interview people they say things unreservedly and we publish unreservedly. When the publication is out and their friends or superiors read it and accuse them of having said too much to the press, then they start claiming they were misquoted.
We have encountered these ‘misquotation palaver’ every now and then and reporters are usually accused of this transgression. However, when they bring out their note-books or recorders, it is realised that they wrote nothing out of the way. “Book no lie”.
My advice to people who deal with the press is that if they do not want anything written, they shouldn’t say it. What they want to say is OFF-RECORD, then of course, there is no reason to say it. When you say it, you’re taking a risk. In that instance, you can’t also claim to have been misquoted or words put into your mouth.
And it isn’t every journalist who would be circumspect in matters that are supposed to be off-record, because journalists often want to be as sensational as possible to make their stories saleable. So say just what you want to see published and you won’t later regret it and claim you were misquoted.
Well, I’m not holding brief for journalists, because a few of us are notorious for colouring our reports sometimes sand-papering the words so much that they look very bright in front of readers.
As I once said, when the police tells one such notorious pressman that the thief stole a brown goat, the pressman would want to know whether the goat was bearded. Of course, the police would say ‘Yes’.
However, in the press report, it appears, “A gang of notorious goat-thieves were apprehended in the early hours of yesterday. In the car in which they were riding was a brownish-red goat having a long beard. Upon further examination, it was realised that the goat also had a greyish moustache.”
When the story appears, the police are naturally disturbed. A single thief turns out to be a gang of thieves. The goat also becomes a chameleon and changes colour to brownish-red. And a moustacheless goat overnight wears a greyish moustache whether you like it or not. Luckily the journalist does not add that the moustache was trimmed by a Swedish barber.
Yes, we have a few of such mischief-creating, chronically notorious journalists. But they are one in a hundred. In any case, we make the world. And we shall always do our best to make it a happy place to live in.
This article was first publish on Saturday, May, 20, 1995
When I hear of people who are of the opinion that they cannot make it in life unless they travel abroad, l become sad.
Whenever I see on TV, news of people, that is migrants who have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, while attempting to cross to Europe, l become filled with sadness and then anger.
The underlying factor is desperation born out of loss of hope, in life. When an individual tends to believe that his only hope of making it in life is to travel abroad, the risk of dying at sea, does not deter him or her.
The role of some pastors on shaping the mindset of people, especially the youth, leaves much to be desired. You hear them declaring on various media platforms how they can pray for you to get a visa to travel abroad, instead of encouraging them to find something to do to improve their lives as the Bible teaches that God will bless the work of their hands.
The GREATER WORKS CONFERENCE is geared towards renewing the minds of people with a specific focus on people of African descent to rid themselves of the negative perception of lack of capacity to excel in life.
Pastor Mensa Otabil believes that every human being, no matter the skin colour, was created in the exact image of God and therefore has the capacity to do exploits.
The whiteman was not created in the image of God while the Blackman was created in the image of something other than God. The Black person therefore can achieve whatever the whiteman can achieve.
The development in terms of industrialisation that is lacking which has generated unemployment for the youth, is due to lack of effective leadership. The lack of moral integrity in society, is what is causing the lack of job opportunities, which is as a result of corrupt acts which drive away private investment.
A culture of inferiority complex exists which needs to be dealt with, so the African can develop the self worth necessary for personal development which can then result in capacity deployment to avhieve personal goals.
Success in life begins with the individual’s recognition that he or she is capable of achieving the dreams he or she has conceived in his or her mind. The Bible teaches that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding according to Proverbs 9:10.
Christianity was the driving force behind the development of Europe because no society can sustain development without high moral values. GREATER WORKS therefore is a deliberate project to shape the minds of people, especially the youth, who will become the leaders of our future, to prioritise morality in their daily lives.
This is the only way to see a massive transformation in every aspect of our lives as Ghanaians and Africans in Ghana and the rest of the continent.
Since the inception of the GREATOR WORKS CONFERENCE, it has made a lot of impact in the lives of many people from the youth up to the senior citizens level. I recall the testimony of a church member who was motivated and pursued higher education and became one of the youngest Chartered Accountants in this country. Year after year, the impact of the conference has been enormous and lives in Ghana and across the continent, are being transformed.
Black people have started regaining their self confidence and the youth have started getting into areas that previously were considered out of bounds. At a personal level, certain ideas that some years ago, l would have not dreamt about suddenly has become realistic dreams.
The Christian lifestyle has impacted on my children and those close to me. Mindset change starts with one individual, then another and then gradually it spreads like a viral infection until a critical mass is attained and them a massive impact. There is hope for the future.
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
