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Opinions of Thursday, 29 August 2024

Columnist: Razak Kojo Opoku

Sustainability of national development requires upgrade, reset, restore and restructuring

Razak Kojo Opoku Razak Kojo Opoku

The current state of Ghana requires a combination of an upgrade, reset, restore, and restructuring of all sectors of the economy, including the majority of unprofitable, counterproductive, and redundant policies and programs.

Comprehensive sustainability of national development is achieved through continuous improvement of good policies coupled with the upgrade, review, reset, and discontinuation of policies.

Some policies and programs, such as the Free SHS Policy, One District One Factory, One Constituency One Ambulance, Digital Economy (Digitization & Digitalization), Roads & Infrastructure, etc., call for an upgrade of such policies and programs.

Cronyism (appointment of a large number of family & friends to serve in government), nepotism, favoritism, winner-takes-it-all, unnecessary undermining of private businesspersons, corruption, nuisance taxes (including E-levy), galamsey (illegal mining), youth unemployment, National Cathedral construction, unprecedented national debt, Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, activities of the Bank of Ghana, downgrade of Ghana's credit ratings, etc., call for resetting.

Good governance, accountability, proper rule of law, discipline, non-interference of state institutions, integrity of the judiciary, good moral values, fundamental human rights, tolerance of divergent views, and absolute independence of the media, etc., call for restoration.

The economic architecture or structure of Ghana seriously calls for restructuring aimed at addressing the fundamentals of the economy, including the macroeconomic, microeconomic, fiscal, and monetary policies of the government. The fast depreciation of the cedi, coupled with high interest rates, unstable inflation rates, and a higher debt-to-GDP ratio, calls for restructuring of the economy of Ghana.

Where Ghana has reached, we cannot use an upgrade alone or a reset alone to further develop the country for the greater good of all or the greater majority of the citizens.

We cannot upgrade the bad policies and programs of Akufo-Addo's government and those of the previous governments, especially Mahama's administration.

We cannot also reset all the excellent policies and programs of Akufo-Addo's government and those of the previous governments, especially Mahama's administration.

There is a need to upgrade & restore the good policies/programs and reset & restructure the bad policies/programs of the current and previous governments.

For instance, in June 2020, the World Economic Forum (WEF) launched the Great Reset Initiative aimed at facilitating the rebuilding from the global COVID-19 crisis in a way that prioritizes sustainable development. The Great Reset Initiative covered three major objectives, namely:

1. Creating conditions for a "stakeholder economy."

2. Building in a more "resilient, equitable, and sustainable" way, utilizing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics.

3. Harnessing the innovations of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

It is quite challenging to pinpoint exactly the policy anchors of NDC's 'Resetting Ghana' agenda.

How do we reset Ghana without policy anchors and an economic framework enshrined in your manifesto?

A 24-hour economy is good for an upgrade of the economy, not resetting the economy.

How do we upgrade Ghana without first paying the necessary attention to the restructuring of the economy?

How do you holistically upgrade Ghana without making Ghanaians know your concrete & detailed policy synergies of the macro-model of corporate entrepreneurship & innovations and micro-model enterprises?

How do you implement the Great Transformational Plan without an upgrade, reset, restore, and restructuring? The 10 Pillars of the Great Transformational Plan (GTP) are not detailed enough to address the multi-dimensional problems of the national and local economies of Ghana.

As for the smaller parties and over 20 independent presidential candidates, almost all of them do not have any superior intellectual policy document for the socioeconomic transformation of Ghana. They are only behaving as "attacking dogs" and acting as interest-driven pressure groups in our democracy.

Not every policy or program needs a reset.

Not every policy or program requires an upgrade.

Some policies and programs, in fact, need outright deletions or discontinuation with immediate effect from January 8, 2025.