Ghana is not a poor country but should be classified as a lower-middle income nation, according to the Director General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).
Speaking on a Accra-based TV3’s Hot Issues on Sunday, December 10, Dr. Esseim Mensah-Abrampa refuted claims that Ghana was poor.
"Ghana is not poor, we are a lower-middle-income country. We are not poor because if you have the means of measuring in terms of development with all the global indicators, we have what we call the least developed countries, you have developing countries then you have lower-middle-income, upper-middle-income, and then developed," he explained.
When asked why Ghana's economic status did not appear to reflect in people's living standards, Dr. Mensah-Abrampa insisted it does, indicating that the sophistication in the lives of Ghanaians are far higher than the global average.
"It does reflect in the lives of the people because per capita income, how much you earn, and the sophistication in our lives and our well-being are far higher than the average in the world,” noted the NDPC boss.
He acknowledged that while some Ghanaians remain poor, significant progress has been made, indicating that about half of poor citizens are now being elevated.
"Definitely, we cannot live on the same income bracket which means that definitely there are some people who are poor but there is a process which has gone on for a very long time within twenty years, we have been able to half that, it means we have been able to move half of the people who are poor right into a higher range of wellbeing and satisfaction. So it is a process," the NDPC director added.