Do away with Deputy Regional Ministers - Economist tells Prez

A Senior Economics Lecture at the Kumasi Polytechnic Thomas Kusi Boafo has called on President John Mahama to scrap the position of Deputy Regional Ministers because it is “useless” and an unnecessary financial burden on an ailing economy.

He is also calling on the president to cut the salaries of Ministers by 50% as their contribution to cutting government spending and saving an economy that is near collapse.

Thomas Kusi Boafo was speaking on Adom FM/Asempa FM Burning issues program with Afia Pokua.

He noted that the same speed with which government airlifted US$3million to go pay the Black Stars in Brazil is also needed to rescue the economy.

This, he said, require some very drastic measures like scrapping the position of deputy regional ministers and reducing all ministers' salaries by 50% to cut government spending and show from the top that there is political will to save the economy.

He argued that Ghanaians have lost confidence in the President and his ministers, who have only worked as communicators so far and not delivered on their actual mandates, saying that to restore back confidence, there is need for the President to do a proper ministerial reshuffle and bring in people who would tackle the challenges head on and competently.

Thomas Kusi Boafo said government has lost control of the fundamentals of stabilizing the economy and that is reflecting in rising inflation, rising interest rate, depreciation of the cedi, and high balance of payment deficit.

The Economist noted that government's appetite for borrowing from both domestic and foreign sources is crowding out the private sector, killing businesses and increasing unemployment, saying that more businesses are bound to collapse soon if the trend is not reversed.

“Government must stop paying lip service to the private sector. High lending rates, non-payment of contractors, dumsor dumsor, and excessive taxation only serve to increase the cost of doing business and will contract rather than expand the economy” he added.

Mr. Kusi Boafo likened the economy to a person with a heart problem needing urgent attention to prevent death.

“I can tell you honestly per statistic available that over 85% of Ghanaians earn below GH 4,000 and year and these people may never own homes” he said.

The Economist also proposed a few other measures such as the need to increase cocoa from the current 825,000 to 1million tons within the next 6month to stop the depreciation of the cedis, adopting an integrated approach to agriculture and generating local funds to save the economy.

He thinks the erratic energy situation in the country is also a sign that the economy is on the verge of total collapse if drastic measures are not taken to reverse it soon.