Business News of Thursday, 22 May 2014

Source: Fred Yaw Sarpong

IMF models are necessary but... - Dasebre Oti Boateng

The Omanhene of the New Juaben Traditional Area, Dasebre Professor Emeritus Oti Boateng has stated that the economic models and solutions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are necessary for Ghana, but statistically they are not sufficient for the country.

Supporting the home grown efforts proposed by government to solve Ghana's economic challenges, the Emeritus Statistician said the nation needs sufficiency model which must come from the communities themselves and indigenously germinated.

"We cannot go any other way except it is home grown. I am glad the Senchi accord has a consensus on home grown development model," said Dasebre Oti Boateng.

The New Juaben Omanhene said this when members of the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) called on him at the New Juaben Secretariat Board at Koforidua in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

Dasebre Dr. Oti Boateng said it is important to empower communities as far as the development of this country is concerned. "So if we want real development, it is the people within the community," he noted. He hailed the recently held National Economic Forum, saying that taking ideas and opinions from various stakeholders into considerstion is the best way to move this country forward.

"If you don’t consider the inter-dependency of the several parts, it will go bad," he added.

"When you have the whole country with communities and traditional areas, the traditional areas or the district assemblies formed entities within the area, and the development of the area depends on these entities and their people," he emphasized.

He indicated that it is only when an entity is inter-dependent on its several parts that you can take action to tackle the several issues that confront the country". He explained that building a nation needs collective efforts from all the citizens but not a particular set of people.

He announced that he has developed a development model which he will officially launch on November 1, 2014, during the celebration of the Akwantu Kesie festival.

The IFEJ in partnership with GIZ was in the region to train over 40 financial journalists on extractive industries at the Mac-Dic Hotel in Koforidua. The 5-day training program, which started on Thursday 15th May, 2014 ended on Monday 19th May, 2014.