Involve private sector in policy planning, implementation to achieve 'Ghana beyond aid' agenda – EGP to gov’t

The Economic Governance Platform (EGP) is charging government to include the private sector in the planning and implementation of policies to make 'Ghana Beyond Aid' dream come to pass.

Programme Coordinator for EGP, Mr. Felix Ankrah emphasised this during a roundtable discussion on Wednesday, December 1, 2021, organised on the theme; “An Assessment on Economic Growth Pathways through which the Private Sector can contribute to the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction in the Post-Covid-19 Recovery Period.”

Delivering an opening statement to kick-start the programme, Mr. Felix Ankrah stressed that the key role played by the private sector makes it a crucial sector the government must look at if it wants to develop the country.

“What we are urging is that the government partners the private sector in policy planning as well as implementation so that we will achieve our Ghana beyond aid and also catch up in terms of what we have lost due to Covid-19 and reduce poverty,” the EGP programmes coordinator said.

He further noted that in a post-covid-19 era, government must capitalise on the advantages of technology and innovations to empower the private sector to grow.

He indicated that once the private sector booms, it will boost the economy to inspire the needed development to alleviate the suffering of the citizenry.

“Accelerating the growth of the private sector is key. The private sector is a key player and stakeholder as it contributes so much to employment, tax payment, among others. The government needs to take advantage of science, technology, innovation, climate-friendly strategies. The private sector is the partner they should call upon because they have the expertise and the technical known how,” Mr. Felix Ankrah added.

Through the advocacy work of the Economic Governance Platform, it provided stakeholders with the opportunity to discuss the findings of the latest research conducted on interventions made by the government in the last two decades to support the private sector.

Taking participants of the roundtable discussions through the findings, Dr. William Godfred Cantah, an Economist with the Department of Data Science and Economics at the University of Cape Coast disclosed that indeed successive governments have made the effort to cushion the private sector.

Unfortunately, the sector according to Dr. Cantah is challenged by a number of factors including lack of access to credit as well as high-interest rates in the country.

Emphasising the role the sector has played in reducing poverty in the country by providing employment, the economist noted that more in terms of financial support should be given to private sector players by the government.

“When it comes to the development of Ghana the private sector has helped a lot in so many ways. They employ more people even than how the government employs people in the public sector. It is fact that they have helped to reduce poverty in this country.

“The government’s COVID-19 alleviation Programme is indeed helping the private sector but that alone is not enough. I think the government should look at reducing interest rates on loans and also work on making available a market for the things produced by the private sector,” Dr. William Godfred Cantah.

He added that government must look at awarding contracts to SMEs to help them expand into big companies to be able to employ a lot of people.

According to him, such a step will contribute to reducing poverty in the country.

About Economic Governance Platform:

Formerly called the CSO Platform on the IMF Programme, the Economic Governance Platform is the foremost coalition of CSOs focused on ensuring the effective use of public resources to grow Ghana’s economy.

The platform exists to ensure that Civil Society Organizations and the media working on transparency and accountability issues in Ghana always come out with common stands on Economic Governance issues, through policy analysis, constructive engagement with the government and its agencies and development partners to achieve maximum advocacy results.