Features
Finance Minister claims economy is back on track …But the ordinary Ghanaians say impact is not being felt in their pockets
There are two schools of thought about a recent statement attributed to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta with regards to the economy which he claimed had taken shape following the injection of the first tranche of loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to revamp Ghana’s ailing economy and bring it back on track.
While the government spearheaded by the Finance Minister, who is the exchequer and economic and financial advisor to the President, aided by IMF officials believe that there are concrete signs of improvement in the economy which are beginning to show or manifest, other school of thought particularly the ordinary Ghanaians believe that the government is being evasive, insincere and hypocritical with the truth. They feel that they are being short-changed and deceived by the government and that nothing really is happening because the signs of economic growth are not being felt in their lives, let alone in their pockets. Their thinking was that all the factors that led the country to the IMF to seek economic bailout still persist and that nothing has changed, claiming that the value is still the same.
ECONOMIC WATCHERS AND THINK TANKS PROJECTIONS
The economic watchers and think tanks have projected a slowdown in the economy to 1.5% in 2023 and remain depressed in 2024 at 2.8%, but it is expected to recover to its potential growth by 2025. Some of the economic challenges facing Ghana are unemployment, corruption, inconsistent economic policies, poor human capital development, poor health system, crime and terrorism. Our biggest problem is a debt crisis, high inflation and the devaluation of the local currency, the cedi. These are the challenges that led the country to conclude an agreement with the IMF for a bailout.
The Government of Ghana recently reached a Staff Level Agreement (SLA) with the IMF for a first review of the IMF-supported Post COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG). That consensus came after five months of negotiations and paved the way for further progress toward approval of the first review by the IMF Executive Board scheduled for November 2023.
FINANCE MINISTER’S SPEECH
Speaking to the press after that meeting, the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, expressed optimism about the economic outlook saying: “The economy is responding positively and strongly to the news of government and IMF reaching an SLA for the first review, and we are eager to leverage this momentum to the very moment when the IMF Executive Board approved the first review in November”. He said the SLA was an indicative of the strong performance in meeting end-June 2023 performance indicators – including six quantitative performance criteria and three indicative targets as well as three structural benchmarks. These achievements he said, underscored Ghana’s commitment to economic recovery and stability.
Hear the Minister further: “Year-to-date data reflect significant improvements in economic performance. The gross domestic product has rebounded strongly, averaging 3.2 per cent in the first two quarters of 2023. Inflation on the other hand has been on a relatively downward trend, dropping to 40.1 per cent in August 2023 while the cedi has remained stable with a cumulative depreciation of about 23.5 per cent year-to-date. The fiscal front shows a surplus of about GHc2billion in H1 2023, exceeding the target”.
EMPTY PAPER TALK
Indeed, on paper, these are fine development, especially for the economists since they understand the issue and the corresponding economic language better and therefore can digest and interpret it in the best manner they can. But on a more serious note, the majority of Ghanaians who assess and weigh the performance of the economy with their living conditions, will not side with the government assessment because they don’t feel the transformation of the economy in their pockets since it is not visible. It is the same old story as they find it very difficult to make ends meet. They are still buying food items and other consumables at exorbitant prices, cost of transportation is still high, fuel prices keep escalating, payment of school fees for their children and wards has become so difficult, marriages are fallen apart and on rocks due to financial misunderstandings from couples and a whole lot of economic challenges.
EXPECTATIONS FROM GHANAIANS
Just as the government assured the nation that going to the IMF for economic bailout would solve most of these economic difficulties and improved the living conditions of the people within the shortest possible time, Ghanaians were therefore of the high hopes and expectation that, it would not be long for them to see signs of improvement in their living conditions. However, six months into the programme, nothing is showing and also, they are not feeling the impact of the IMF bailout.
Those so-called economic jargons such as gross domestic product, high inflation, macro and micro economic developments among others, which are difficult to be understood and assimilated and are always foisted on the ordinary Ghanaians make them angry and agitated, because they do not make sense to them in any way. As for the IMF praising Ghana for managing the funds well, that is normal because the benefit they will derive from Ghana in the long run.
Right now, what Ghanaians are expecting from government that will let them feel comfortable with their lives is to lay bare in simple terms the true facts relating to the current situation with the IMF bailout and the corresponding benefits that will reflect their lifestyles. Ghanaians are now discerning and wide awake and, therefore they will not sit down and allow falsehood to be peddled or forced down their throats to swallow. They will rather prefer that the government keep mute on issues concerning the economy instead of throwing dust into their eyes through deceit and falsehood. Ghanaians are noted to be magicians when it comes to how they manage themselves and they will like to remain as such.
Contact email/WhatsApp of author: ataani2000@yahoo.com 0277753946/0248933366
By Charles Neequaye
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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