Dr Bawumia restates govt’s resolve to wean country off aid
The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has reiterated the government’s commitment to move the country beyond donor aid through robust mobilisation of revenue on the domestic front and prudent financial management.
Advertisement
He said in the wake of dwindling donor support to developing countries, local mobilisation of revenue was the most sustainable way to build a vibrant economy that would support national development.
“The reality is that many donor countries have started moving beyond aid and so the political economy will not favour governments which will continue to depend on such foreign aid to grow their economies. The earlier countries realised this and began to mobilise revenue locally, the better,” he stressed.
Forum
The Vice-President made the commitment in a keynote address he delivered at a national forum organised by the embassies of Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway, in partnership with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), in Accra on Thursday.
It was on the theme: “Ghana beyond aid: A reality in the making; lessons learned from private sector development in Ghana”.
The Ambassadors of Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway, Messrs Tove Degnbol, Ron Strikker and Gunnar Andreas Holm, respectively, were present at the forum.
Transparency
Dr Bawumia explained that the government had decided to put in place efficient mechanisms, such as the paperless regime at the ports and the digital addressing system, to ensure effective mobilisation of revenue.
“Transparency in governance is key to taking Ghana beyond aid because we can mobilise enough revenue, but if people continue to steal public funds without thinking about value for money, we cannot develop,” he said.
He stated that from the policy perspective, the government was committed to ensuring that the country moved beyond aid dependency through financial discipline and strategic public-private partnerships (PPPs).
He stressed that the government’s policies and initiatives, such as Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), free senior high school (SHS) education and one-district, one-factory, were all targeted at building the capacity of the country’s human resource and productive capacity.
Marshal Plan
Touching on the PFJ policy, the Vice-President said the next budget would capture what he called a ‘Marshal Plan’ to boost agricultural production.
“The PFJ has been rolled out on a pilot basis but the ‘Marshal Plan’ will ensure massive implementation of the policy because we believe that if we are able to boost agricultural production, Ghana’s balance sheet will be improved,” he said.
He added that efforts were being made by the government to add value to the country’s export commodities and mineral resources, stressing that the best way to generate more revenue was to grow the local economy.
He observed that the private sector was central to the government’s industrialisation policies because it was a viable sector that had the potential to create more jobs and expand the domestic revenue base.
Lean government
A senior lecturer at the Department of Economics of the University of Ghana, Dr Ebo Turkson, said moving Ghana beyond aid would require the political will to fight corruption among public officials.
“We cannot say we are moving Ghana beyond aid if we have a huge government machinery that will take a chunk of the revenue, so the size of government ought to be looked at critically,” he said.
He suggested the need for managers of the economy to look for alternative sources of generating funds by putting in place measures to attract private capital into the country.
Collaboration
In separate addresses, the Ambassadors of Denmark, Norway and The Netherlands lauded the government’s PFJ and industrialisation policies, describing them as transformational.
They commended the government for coming up with initiatives targeted at improving accountability in the use of public funds, especially the paperless regime.
The ambassadors stressed the need for collaborations at the regional and the international levels to be strengthened to build local economies.