AN Akan proverb, “Se wohu se egya ato wo yonko abodwese mu a, na w’asa nsuo asi wo dee ho”, which loosely translates "If you see your neighbour’s beard in flames, then you better get water by your side", should be a wake-up call to Ghanaians to be mindful of developments on the international financial markets.
Fortunately, the Ghanaian economy has so far weathered the storm generated by the hike in crude oil prices and the global food crisis.
The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, in an interview with this paper on Friday, September 12, 2008, defended the state of the Ghanaian economy, saying it was expanding tremendously.
Dismissing suggestions that the government was losing its grip on the economy, the minister said despite the spiralling price of oil on the world market that reached a high of $147 per barrel, as against the budget projection of $85 per barrel, the country did not experience any shortage in its daily requirement of 60,000 barrels.
The economic panic that occasioned the loss of homes in the United States of America (USA) following the mortgage crisis was compounded by the fall of two key financial institutions in that country.
The disintegration of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch and Co. Inc. has sent shock waves down the corridors of notable stock exchanges across the world, necessitating the filing of the biggest bankruptcy protection in history.
The Guardian of the United Kingdom and the Daily Telegraph described the Lehman bankruptcy as one of the "worst banking collapses in history".
The economic crisis in the USA is causing alarm in all the financial markets of the world and a developing economy like Ghana must take steps to fence its activities against economic shocks.
The Daily Graphic believes that in spite of the revelation that Ghana's economy is resilient, everybody must be concerned about the pragmatic steps that the government will take in case we are affected by the effects of the credit crunch.
We say so because Ghana is not an island. It has gone to the international market to launch bonds for capital and infrastructural development.
We cannot pretend that the global crisis appears far removed from us. This is because now that we have decided, as a policy, to seek funding for most of our projects on the international market, investment institutions like the Lehman Brothers will execute such transactions on our behalf.
For some time now market economy has been touted as the best model to address global poverty. It is believed, whether rightly or wrongly, that if the private sector plays the leading role in economic development, the effects will trickle down to the ordinary person on the street.
The Daily Graphic thinks that the time has come for governments to rethink the notion that the state should not be actively involved in the management of the economy. Lessons from the USA demonstrate that the private sector is equally vulnerable.
African governments should be bold to allow the state to play a key role in the development of the economy.
The Daily Graphic calls for the reconstruction of the economic architecture such that the state plays active roles in strategic sectors like banking, education, health and agriculture.
We think that the government should put in measures to prevent any unscrupulous person from manipulating the system for personal gain during these trying times.
Be that as it may, there are useful lessons to learn from the approach the US government has adopted to resolve the financial crisis.
Its leaders have suppressed their partisan affiliations to throw their weight behind moves to save the financial sector from total collapse.
The Daily Graphic hopes that if we are confronted with similar circumstances, we shall face the challenges in a non-partisan manner.
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