Dr Afriyie Akoto calls for shift in economic policies
The hardship citizens are currently experiencing is the result of the country's continuous reliance on external and internal borrowing, a flag bearer hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, has stated.
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“We are all feeling the heat.
An economy of 38.1 per cent inflation, who isn’t feeling the heat? How does anybody survive?
I have been truthful to the facts.
The government has been truthful to the facts, and that is why we went to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout,” he noted.
Speaking in an interview with media practitioners in Accra, Dr Akoto said the use of debt financing had never been good for Ghana, underscoring the need for a policy shift.
He said the quest to achieve economic development must immediately shift from the overreliance on debt financing to a more sustainable economic policy rooted in the development and diversification of home-grown policies.
Policy shift
The former Minister of Food and Agriculture noted that Ghana had the requisite natural resources but what it lacked was a bold and courageous leadership that would implement homegrown policies embedded in its agricultural diversification to achieve the much-needed economic independence.
Worried about the high rate of Ghana's inflation, Dr Akoto said such could be curbed when the country halted its overreliance on debt financing and begun implementing homegrown policies.
Ghana’s year-on-year inflation rate dropped from 40.1 per cent in August 2023 to 38.1 per cent in September 2023, according to the Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel K. Annim.
Inflation
Despite the two per cent drop, Dr Akoto believes the 38 per cent inflation rate was unbearable.
"Even 20 per cent inflation rate is not good for any country, and that is why we are all feeling the heat," he posited, adding that "Today, Ghana is buried in debt, and this will forever cling us to the apron strings of our creditors.
“We cannot control and manage our economic indexes when we are so much swallowed in debts.
They will continue to dictate the pace and control our economy."
He said Ghana needed an economic policy that would make the country focus and invest in agriculture to provide the needed jobs for the teeming youth.