Kwesi Pratt Jnr, the managing editor of the Insight newspaper has said the country’s economy has been run aground.
He berated the government’s economic interventions aimed at mitigating the harsh economic challenges in the country.
Speaking with Nana Yaa Mensah on Sunday Night on Asaase radio, the ace journalist said, “The economy of this country has been run aground to the extent that even the policies which were announced are no longer sustainable.”
Pratt added, “Now, think about the current situation where we’re having to spend 128% of total national revenue on debt servicing, debt repayment and public sector emoluments; a huge hole in the economy. If you are spending 128% of your total national earnings on these three headline items, what is left to build gutters, construct roads, improve the educational system etc? so then we get back into the vicious cycle of having to go to the colonial metropolis to look for loans and grants and get more seriously entrapped into the neocolonial arrangement.”
Industralisation agenda
He said the industrialisation agenda of the government is a far cry from what Kwame Nkrumah tried to do for the country.
Pratt said there is a certain level of deception in the government’s ‘One District, One Factory’ policy and that the government needs to build factories which will lead the country to the path of national self-reliance.
“There is a certain level of deception in the whole arrangement [1D1F]. Are we implementing a policy of import substitution? If we are seeking to embark on a policy of import substitution, what are we producing to substitute for what? It’s a critical question which we need to answer.
“I think what we need to do now is to build industries which enable us to overcome our current dependency on imports which lead us to the path of national self-reliance. I don’t see that happening.”
Meanwhile, the government will from Monday (27 June) to Wednesday conduct a series of engagements with key sector players within the Ghanaian economy to assess the impact of the economic mitigation measures that were announced in March this year.
The exercise is expected to enable the government determine whether or not the measures have provided enough of a cushioning from the adverse effects of recent global crises.
The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah who disclosed this during an interview with journalists in Accra on Sunday said the engagements will also enable government ministers examine what more may be done to support Ghanaians during these difficult times.
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