BUILDING A STRONG ECONOMY (JANUARY 4, 2009)

THERE was great hope among majority of the populace when the Mills administration took office with the pledge to strive for a better Ghana.
At his inauguration on January 7, 2009, President J.E.A. Mills affirmed his commitment to pursue to the letter his four thematic areas of job creation, expansion of infrastructure, open and honest government, and investing in the people.
But the realities of the times thwarted the efforts of the government to redeem its campaign pledges to create more jobs, expand education and health facilities and create equal opportunities for all.
Major policy interventions designed by the government had to be suspended till late last year. For instance, the programme to give free uniforms to schoolchildren could only be started in December last year.
The government, in its 2009 budget, kept expenditure in check, restricted employment only to key sectors of the economy and put priorities on other activities for which the state had to commit some resources.
Native wisdom postulates that, “Wo fro dua pa a, na yepia wo” — To wit “Anyone who undertakes a good cause gets the necessary push”.
And for the simple reason that the government has adopted the right mix to revive the economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and other development partners injected millions of dollars to support the effort.
This infusion of funds into the economy halted the free fall of the cedi, provided support for the productive sectors of the economy and pushed inflation into the declining gear.
The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, could not have given a brighter outlook of the economy for 2010 when he declared that “with the stabilisation of the economy, the government is now set to transform the rural economy”.
The DAILY GRAPHIC is happy that the government has declared its intention to transform the rural economy in order to ensure sustained and even growth. The majority of the people live in the rural areas and the conditions under which they live cannot be anything but satisfactory.
It will not be out of place to blame the rural-urban exodus of the youth in search of greener pastures on the appalling living conditions in our countryside.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that if the government is able to allocate a lot of resources to the rural areas, the youth there will be able to access credit to undertake productive ventures.
It is good that the government has re-introduced the Youth-in-Agriculture Programme to encourage the youth to venture into farming.
From hindsight, it should be clear to the policy makers by now that anytime the government takes front-line role in the disbursement of funds, there is widespread abuse and recovery is low.
Let it be strictly for productive activities only and those who think the support for agriculture is pay-back time for their support for the ruling party should not be entertained. For if we play by the rules, the programmes will be successful.
While commending the government and its Economic Management Team for a good show in 2009, the DAILY GRAPHIC calls on the people to work harder this year to transform the economy.
There is no short cut to our goal of creating more jobs, higher incomes and improving the standard of living of the people and we urge the Finance Minister to remain steadfast in the implementation of the government’s prudent economic measures.