Ghana cannot afford to continue to have an economy hijacked by gov’t; businesses won’t grow – Lord Mensah

Senior lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), Professor Lord Mensah has accused the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) of hijacking the Ghanaian economy since assuming power in 2017.

According to him, this is seriously impeding the growth of businesses in the country and the improvement of living conditions of Ghanaians.

“For the past seven years this economy has been hijacked by the government because the government has been using Treasury bill instruments to run the show. Businesses are not running the show in the country as expected so for me you cannot continue to have an economy that has been hijacked by the government and you want the living conditions of the people to be better.

“That is not economic development, you will be calling us all the GDP, growing capital, per capita income among others but how is the distribution? How many people are able to put food on their table? So you are going to have economic growth but that is not necessarily economic development,” Professor Lord Mensah said in an interview with Starr FM.

He said he hopes that Ghana’s programme with the International Monetary Fund will address the issue of hijack by government for businesses to have the chance to grow to employ more people.

“So, I think that we need to do more and I am hoping that with this IMF programme that we have we are going to see that kind of trend where businesses and individuals expand and employ,” Prof. Mensah added.

Meanwhile, government of Ghana has reached an agreement with bilateral creditors for debt treatment.

The latest agreement with the Official Creditors paves the way for IMF Executive Board approval of the first review of the Fund-supported programme, allowing for the next tranche of IMF financing of US$600 million to be disbursed.

The IMF Board Approval should also trigger the World Bank Board consideration of US$300 million Development Policy Operation (DPO) financing. In addition, the World Bank is expected to support the Ghana Financial Stability Fund with US$250 million to help address the impact of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) on the financial sector.

In a release from Ghana’s Ministry of Finance, it said these disbursements are key for Ghana's economic recovery and ambitious reform agenda.