Yaw Osafo Maafo
Government says it’s ready to partner players in both the public and civil sectors to help Ghana’s private sector to grow.
Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo, who disclosed this at the 6th Ghana Economic Forum (GEF), which opened yesterday in Accra, said that was the only way to grow the Ghanaian economy because under the IMF programme, government cannot employ fresh graduates.
The public sector is full and therefore it is the private sector that can absorb them, he said.
According to him, more graduates were being trained for the job market by almost 100 universities in the country.
He added that an expanded and thriving private sector could employ them.
“This generation should lay a foundation that will forever make Ghana a centre of industry in West Africa,” he observed, adding “Let’s take advantage of the 350 million population in West Africa and domesticate our production because our location in the sub-region is very central, therefore let us resolve to get the economy resolved once and for all.”
The senior minister also said the enforcement of the fiscal responsibility law was necessary to help the managers of the economy spend prudently.
He appealed to all stakeholders to come on board to domesticate the economy to make Ghanaian businesses play a key role in resolving the challenges.
“Ghana must play a leading role and this means that our laws must support the private sector together with the captains of the industries so that the Ghanaian will be on the steering wheel directing the economy,” he said.
The theme for the event is, “Building a Ghanaian Owned Economy, 60 Years after Independence.”
The conference is organised by the Business and Financial Times newspaper with Barclays Bank being the lead sponsor.
He said that government had decided to focus attention on certain four major thematic areas namely – Stable Macroeconomic Indicators, Infrastructure Development, Transformation of the Agricultural Sector and Accelerated Industrial Development.
He noted that Ghana was currently a lower middle income country that must grow its economy in order to pay back her debts.
Government could not attain its revenue collection target for the first half of the year, and therefore cut down certain expenditures in the Mid-year budget review so that it could spend within the revenue level and stabilise the macroeconomic environment for growth.
Mr Osafo-Maafo noted that the country had sufficient arable lands that could sustain crop production, coupled with water bodies that could be tapped for irrigation, saying, “So do we have any reason to be importing food items like vegetables, flowers, rice and others, I don’t think we have and we can’t explain it to the future generation.”
Edith Dankwa, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Business and Financial Times (B&FT) newspaper, in an address, called on the business community to help build the economy.
“The Ghanaian economy must retain the chunk of our resources for the benefit of its nationals,” she said.
The forum attracted more than 500 captains of industries and entrepreneurs across the country.
By Samuel Boadi