General News of Thursday, 14 January 2021

Source: etvghana.com

Govt should outline different models to raise money - Prof Gatsi

Professor John Gartchie Gatsi, Dean for the School of Business at the University of Cape Coast Professor John Gartchie Gatsi, Dean for the School of Business at the University of Cape Coast

The Dean for the School of Business at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Professor John Gartchie Gatsi has suggested that government must come out with models to guide them in raising revenue for their activities.

He noted that Ghana can only grow as a country, and survive the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic only by putting in place such models.

Talking to Samuel Eshun on e.TV’s Factsheet he stated, “as it stands now, I think the best approach going forward is making sure our expenditure is efficient. It’s very very key. That is to say if we are not to spend every penny of the small amount of revenue we will mobilize as a country to avoid borrowing. If we want to, then we should generate more revenue over our expenditure. If not, what we do will be above the overall interest of the economy of Ghana”.

Professor John disclosed that, from 2017-2020 about 140 billion cedis has been borrowed by government to be used for the country’s development.
Which he believes is unhealthy for the country’s economy.

He went further to say that, the outlay of the expenditure that the government will put forward for 2021 should be one that will make Ghanaians ask ourselves, “is this something that our revenue will be able to mobilize and also if we’ll be able to finance”.

The professor however admitted he is saddened about the fact that, government is yet to outline financial measures for the country in 2021, being fully aware “of what we faced as a country in 2020”.

He believes that if the government is able to get models to help them raise money, it will reduce the rate at which we borrow drastically.