A Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) wants the government to reduce the number of development initiatives it is pursuing, and focus on only a few within a particular time frame.
Dr Said Boakye says the Nana Akufo-Addo-led administration risks accomplishing little if its capital-intensive projects like Planting for Food and Jobs, Zongo Development Fund, One Million Dollars per Constituency, Free Senior High School (SHS) etc, are not rolled out gradually.
“I am not saying they [initiatives] are bad. Who wouldn’t like an industrialised economy? Nobody would. But if you don’t take your time, and try to do so many things at the same time, you will not be able to achieve anything, none of them will succeed,” he said on The Hard Truth, a political talk show on the Joy News channel.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) campaign in the 2016 election made promises that many in the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) say are populist and unattainable.
Although initiatives like the free SHS programme, Zongo Development Fund and the Planting for Food and Jobs have been rolled out, teething challenges have raised doubts about their sustainability.
Dr Boakye says beyond their sustainability government must reduce its expenditure mix in order not to choke other important sectors of the economy.
“President Kufuor did something similar – district industrialisation programme – every district was supposed to get one factory. After his term how many factories have been established? It is because of a funding issue.
“That is why we are only cautioning the [current] government, ‘take your time, move slowly, don’t bring all these things onboard at the same time,’” he admonished.
He also said the current government must work to achieve a more robust economic growth that is not fueled by the oil sector.
“If you look at other sectors of the economy, they are performing worse than last year, “he said, urging managers of the economy to focus on the Services and other sectors of the economy that have taken a nose dive.
Source: joynews
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Dr Boakye i agree with you for the govenment to be cautious but to say there was no money that's why President Kuffuors factories couldn't come on is a little bit worrying when everyone knows where the monies went to. We got bad management of our country for the 8 us*less years of the ndc. Those people had no vision and were clueless and had nothing absolutely nothing for the country apart from satisfying themselves. Ghana would have moved on if we had good people to have managed the country and this government wouldn't have been in this hurry. President Kuffuor took us to lower middle income economy and left Prof. Mills with money but these people took us from the lower middle income to HIPIC with no money left and they had the guts to tell us they've eaten all the meat and left the bones. Insha Allah! God's willing it will be well with Ghanaians, in every starting point there will be challenges but us we move on we could manage and bring everything under control. God is we us,but those nation wreckers, those anti-Ghana and enemies of Ghana will never ever succeed, we serving a living God who will never foresake Ghana. We are moving to the promised land, Ghana shall succeed, It will be well with Ghana and Ghana will be a better place. God bless the government and make them great and strong.