Ghana’s economy is like a pendulum. It swings growth on one turn and swings decline on another turn.
For instance, the economy grew by a record 14% in 2011. Inflation was kept at single digit for a record two-and-a half years between June 2010 and December 2012, but this success could not be sustained in the subsequent years.
Since the economic boon between 2010 and 2011, the country’s economy has been declining with current average growth rate hovering around 6.8%, inflation rate also averaging around 14%-15%, public debt rising rapidly coupled with high currency depreciation.
Economic watchers have attributed this recent economic decline to low agricultural growth, the energy crisis, lack of donor support, low commodity prices, and lack of fiscal discipline, and of course, corruption.
Although the government is trying, through the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to swing the economic pendulum back to the path of growth, however, skeptics still say this rescue measure is unsustainable.
This back and forth of the Ghanaian economy has largely been attributed to a number of reasons. Some say is as a result of how the colonial masters structured country’s economy while others also attribute this squarely to the door step of the caliber of leaders Ghana has had over the years.
Ghana is blessed with many natural resources like; cocoa, gold, cashew, manganese and bauxite, but unfortunately, the nation is still walloping in abject poverty even in the face of glareous wealth. This is due to the inability of the country’s torchbearers to make good use of these God given resources.
Ghana’s economic is a dependent one, as designed by its colonial masters. Governments over the years have been running the country’s economy according to the dictates of these colonial masters, but this hasn’t yielded the needed results.
So I think it about time the country designed its own indigenous solutions to solving its indigenous challenges.
For me, all this talk about achieving high growth rate, single digit inflation and all the “kominini” by agents of our colonial masters, is a subtly designed strategy to distract us from the clearest and proven path to growth and development.
The clearest path for me, towards achieving growth and development for any developing country, is infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure. I believe when we channel all our efforts towards opening up the country with roads, investing in energy, factories and industries, building schools, hospitals, and water, the economy would experience massive sustainable growth.
The good books says “seek he first the kingdom of God and all other things shall be added onto you”, but I will paraphrase this to say; seek he first, infrastructural development, and all other economic indicator shall fall in place naturally.
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