WE CAN (MARCH 12, 2009)

GLOBAL financial institutions and eminent African statesmen have raised the red flag over the economic difficulties that confront African countries this year because of the global economic downturn.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are worried that the economic gains made by many African countries will slip because of the meltdown.
Consequently, African leaders are calling for more aid commitment from multilateral and bilateral institutions and the donor community.
Unfortunately, the so-called major economies of the world have also not been spared the global economic and financial crises.
Yesterday, the World Bank Vice-President for Africa, Ms Obiagelli Katryn Ezekwesili, sounded the alarm when she called on President J. E. A. Mills and reminded Ghanaians to brace themselves up for the grim economic situation for this year.
Some reports indicate that the financial crisis today is the worst since World War I. Faced with this grim outlook, even the countries that practise free market economy to the letter are trying quickly to reverse the rule books, such that the state will be called upon to take a front-line role in the reconstruction of their economies.
A statist approach to development, which was rejected in the past and described as unworkable, has suddenly become the best model.
The US and the UK governments have intervened with huge sums of money to bail out banks and mortgage firms in order to save jobs and protect people’s incomes.
These countries used to tell governments in African countries to stay clear of investing in strategic industries and leave the private sector to do so. While they preached private investments in strategic industries and advised African countries to recover cost in the educational, health and utility sectors, they provided handsome subsidies for their farmers to be competitive.
Thus it looks impossible for African countries to secure support from donors to battle the economic crunch, and that is why it is crucial for African governments to look within for solutions to the crisis.
Recently, the Bank of Ghana adjusted the prime rate upwards in an attempt to reduce inflation.
That policy intervention has its own disadvantages, as an increase in interest rates cannot stimulate investments.
The time has, therefore, come for us to find innovative ways of reviving the economy.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that the government can show the way to strengthening the economy by adopting self-reliant policies to stimulate food production in order to assure everybody of at least a meal a day.
We do not need much foreign support to cultivate the land because in 1973 when the late Kutu Acheampong introduced the “Operation Feed Yourself” programme, he was able to stimulate the patriotic instinct in most Ghanaians, such that all available spaces were turned into crop fields.
The DAILY GRAPHIC also calls on the government to introduce pro-poor interventions to reduce the pain of the economic crisis on the vulnerable in society.
By now everybody is aware that the pressure on the budgets of donor countries in the coming months are going to be tight, but through our ingenuity to devise local initiatives, we can engender more economic activities and lead the way to lessen the burden on the people.