Ghana needs a long term national development plan in order to ensure the needed development for its people, Founder of National Interest Movement Dr Abu Sakara, has said.
For him, the trend where one group of people form a government and implement a particular plan only for another set of people to take over to also come with their own plan is not helping the country.
Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday October 21, he explained that the nation is faced with a crisis situation which must first of all be contained.
The Presidential Candidate for the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) in the 2012 elections said “Accept and admit that no one group of people in Ghana can solve the problems. We have to come together, build consensus, face reality and come up with long term plan plan”
“We need a reformed development agenda that looks at the fundamentals. Lashing the [President] may give us some satisfaction but it won’t solve the fundamental problem.
“Right now, we have a crisis situation, the first is to contain it.”
Among the challenges facing Ghana is the poor performance of the local currency against the Dollar and high inflation rate (32.7%).
But the Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana Elsie Addo Awadzi assured that these are temporary.
She expressed confidence of a positive outlook for Ghana’s economy.
Speaking at the 21st Annual National RCB CEOs conference on the theme ‘Positioning Rural banking at the Centre of Financial Services delivery in Ghana – the role of stakeholders” she explained that recent global developments have heightened economic and business uncertainties for businesses and individuals. Our domestic economy is not spared from these developments.
The Bank of Ghana, she said is working closely with the Ministry of Finance and other key stakeholders to negotiate a sound economic reform programme supported by the IMF, to stabilise and transform our economy.
“We at the Bank of Ghana are confident about the outlook for our economy. The current high inflation and cedi depreciation are temporary, and we must avoid speculative behaviour that only works against attaining stability sooner,” Mrs Addo Awadzi stated.
The BoG recently identified five key reasons for the woes of the local currency.
They were “The strength of the US dollar, Investor reaction to Credit Rating Downgrade, Non-Roll over of Maturing Bonds, The sharp rise in crude oil prices and impact on the Oil Bill, Loss of External Financing.”
The central bank went ahead to announce measures introduced to resolve the situation.
They were the “Gold Purchase Program to increase foreign exchange reserves; Special Foreign Exchange Auction for the Bulk Distribution Company’s (BDCs) to help with the importation of petroleum products; Bank of Ghana is entering into a cooperation agreement with the mining companies to provide BOG with the opportunity to buy gold as when it becomes available.
“The Bank of Ghana is supporting the banking sector with foreign currency liquidity to help meet the demand for external payments. The recently approved USD750,000,000 Afrexim loan facility by Parliament, once disbursed, will boost the foreign exchange position of the country and help restore confidence.”
The recently signed 1.13billion dollar Cocoa Syndicated loan was also a measure to shore up the Cedi, the BoG added.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana