Accra, Ghana//-The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), a leading platform of academics, social change activists and Ghanaian patriots advocating for progressive social transformation and people centred development in Ghana is hosting its 11th Leadership Dialogue Series (LDS 11) on Tuesday 6 September 2022.
The LDS 11 is a flagship civic education platform of the Centre to nurture mass political participation and patriotic values thorough intellectually stimulating discussions with prominent national leaders.
The event organized under the theme-‘Transforming Ghana’s Economy – Scape Goats, Root Causes & Hard Choices’, has objectives to: diagnose the true root causes of Ghana’s chronic economic challenges; and discuss political and regulatory perspectives in the management of Ghana’s economy.
The series would also recommend tough decisions that government and citizens need to take and implement in the short and long term to spur Ghana’s economic transformation.
The LDS 11 which is conceptualized and presented as a joint offering with Frederich Ebert Stiftung (FES), a German NGO, is using a blended format with limited in-person and mass virtual participation.
Commenting on the Tuesday’s event, Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, Executive Director of Centre for Social Justice, said: “We plan to host 10-15 people at the Chartered Institute of Banks, East Legon in Accra, complemented by a live transmission of the event on CSJ’s Zoom & Facebook platforms and collaborating with CSJ’s media partners for television and social media broadcast.
These identified media partners, he mentioned are-Woezor TV, Citi TV, Citi FM, Yen online media portal and the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ).
The LDS 11 according to Dr Sodzi-Tettey would be moderated by Dr Priscilla Twumasi-Baffuor, an economist and senior lecturer at the University of Ghana, from 4:30 pm GMT.
While speakers for the day are- Professor John Gatsi, Professor of Finance, Chartered Economist and Barrister at University of Cape Coast; Dr Ernest Adison, Governor of Bank of Ghana; Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance; Isaac Adongo – Deputy Ranking Member, NDC, Finance Committee of Ghana’s Parliament.
“CSJ looks forward to partnering with FES on this important national conversation and to making far reaching recommendations, which if implemented, will transform Ghana’s economy”, Sodzi-Tettey stated.
Indeed, Ghana is in the middle of an economic crises. With a debt to GDP ratio of 78%, a June 2022 inflation rate of 29.8% the highest since December 2003, a weakening currency currently performing at USD1 to GHS 7.4 compared to USD1 to GHS 4.2, in December 2016.
Further, in speaking to the Parliamentary Committee on Finance in July 2022, the Minister of Finance reported dwindling Bank of Ghana reserves from $9billion to $3 billion.
In July 2022, the government of Ghana approached the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package, the 17th in Ghana’s history.
Amidst these economic crises, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has outlined four root causes, namely the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, the banking and financial sector clean up, and excess energy capacity payments through contracts entered by the government of H.E. President John Dramani Mahama.
Other economic and finance experts have downplayed these reasons adduced by the Vice President, fingering the longstanding structural flaws of Ghana’s economy as the more fundamental issue worth focusing on to place the economy on the path of true transformation and resilience, spur consistent growth and avert this cyclical return to the IMF.
Issues worth tackling include boosting our export trade, introducing greater efficiency and better management of government’s social interventions and the public sector wage bill, and avoidance of waste and revenue leakages through corruption and mind-boggling judgment debts (https://csjghana.org/wp-content/uploads/formidable/2/CSJ-FINAL-REPORTcompressed.pdf) CSJ’s 20 year review of Judgment Debt Payments in Ghana.
