Press zooms in on Government’s plan to raise per capita GDP to $4,500, others

APA – Accra (Ghana)
The plan by the government to raise per capita gross domestic products (GDP) from the current US$2,500 to US$4,500 by 2030 is one of the leading stores in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Graphic reports that government is taking keen steps to raise per capita gross domestic products (GDP) from the current US$2,500 to US$4,500 by 2030, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said.
This, he said, would be aligned with the Ghana Beyond Aid Charter.
Delivering the State of the Nation Address (SoNA) at Parliament on March 8, the President noted that the government recognises that sustained growth must be deliberate, especially in a global landscape marked by forces of technology, trade, and intense competition.
He said this would require a combination of leadership, social cohesion, and deep investments in core capabilities of people, firms, and institutions to harness opportunities.
“This is why together with our private sector counterparts, we are anchoring Ghana’s medium-term growth drivers on competitiveness, integration, adaptation and digital innovation,” he said.
According to him, the arrangements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will not restore the fortunes overnight, but it will set the country on the road to recovery.
He said that with fiscal discipline, the government will regain the trust and confidence of business partners and the investor community, which will provide space to continue the productive plans and policies.
The President noted that in further engagement with the fund, the government was seeking and implementing some original and innovative ideas to try to solve the problems.
He said for example, the Gold Purchase Programme by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Gold for Oil Policy were creative uses of resources, which were already bearing fruit.
He said these policies were aimed at achieving two results that were critical to the health of the economy.
“Firstly, they will help us preserve foreign exchange, especially the US dollar, and secondly, they will enable us to stabilise the price of oil products such as petrol and diesel on the domestic market.
“We have already seen some success on both fronts with the price of US dollars and petroleum products falling since we announced the policy and began to implement it,” he said.
The newspaper says that there has been a marginal increase in the number of Ghanaians who travelled and settled outside Ghana in 2021.
The figure increased to 269,531 from 250,624 which was recorded in 2010 with Europe, the Americas (North, South and Carribbean) and African countries outside of ECOWAS being their most favoured destinations.
This was contained in the 2021 Population and Housing Census Thematic Report released by the Ghana Statistical Service today in Accra (Mar 9, 2023).
According to the report, more than half (53.7 per cent) of emigrants originated from the Greater Accra (26.9 per cent) and the Ashanti (26.8 per cent) regions.
According to the report, the two major reasons the respondents gave for travelling outside the country were to seek employment (73.3 per cent) and to pursue education/training (14.6 per cent). Others cited marriage/family reunification and settlement (long-term/permanent stay) as their reasons for relocation.
Conversely, the report also found that there had been a decline in the non-Ghanaian population in the country between 2010 and 2021 from 398,585 to 294,341.
According to the report, Nigerians are the majority of the non-Ghanaian population comprising 26.2 per cent of the non-Ghanaian population while Togolese are 20.5 per cent, Nigeriens are 16.1 per cent, Burkinabes are 16.0 per cent, Ivorians are 4.3 per cent and Asians comprise 3.8 per cent.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Minority in Parliament claimed yesterday, that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Ad-do did not account to the nation on the state of the Ghanaian economy.
According to the minority, the account by the President did not reflect the realities of Ghanaians at a time their living conditions were worsening.
President Akufo-Addo in his message, despite acknowledging the difficulties the economy finds itself in, touted the government for delivering on its mandate to make the living condition of Ghanaians better.
The President said the government had been prudent in the utilisation of resources available to it in the areas of roads, health, transportation, communication, the fight against corruption amongst others.
But the Minority said the scorecard of the President after six years in office had been “excruciating hardship” for Ghanaians and that the hardship had been caused by the unbridled borrowing and mismanagement by the government.
“Mr President, there is widespread despair and disenchantment among our people. Millions of Ghanaians are going through unbearable hardship and excruciating pains.
“Our economy is in its worst shape in decades. In fact, Ghana’s economy is bankrupt. We are currently unable to repay our debts. Ghana has officially defaulted in the repayment of its debt since January 2022,” Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson said.
Despite the “obvious” economic meltdown, Dr Forson said the President has refused to take heed to reduce his government to correspond to the economic climate.
On the macroeconomic front, Dr Forson, MP for Ajumako/Enyan/Es¬iam said Ghana was experiencing high inflationary rate because the government had hugely been funded by the Bank of Ghana.
“Ghana is witnessing hyper inflation largely because, Mr President, your gov¬ernment allowed the Bank of Ghana to print GH¢50 billion for the year 2022 and another GH¢4 billion for the first quarter of 2023.
The newspaper says that the government has been urged to seek a comprehensive external debt restructuring with its creditors to help bring the country back on the path of debt sustainability, the Tax Justice Coalition Ghana has said.
That, the Coalition said, was the only way the country’s current debt and macroeconomic crisis could be addressed.
Addressing a news conference in Accra yesterday on the 2023 annual budget, the Chairman of Tax Justice Coalition Ghana, Mr Vitus A. Azeem, explained comprehensive debt restructuring as Ghana negotiating for all its debts to be forgiven by its external creditors.
He said the external debt restructuring had become necessary to bring stability to the Ghanaian economy.
The analysis on the 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of government was done by the Tax Justice Coalition Ghana in collaboration with Actionaid, as part of an advocacy programme between the two organisations for a progressive tax regime for the country.
He said aside the numerous revenue and expenditure measures in the 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, which will be adopted by government to address the country’s economic crisis, there was the need for the external debt restructuring.
Touching on the tax issues in the 2023 budget, Mr Azeem said though the proposals to freeze new tax waivers for foreign companies and to review tax exemption for free zones, mining and oil and gas companies, some of the proposed revenue measures in the budget pointed to the conclusion that Ghana’s tax system remained more regressive than progressive.
He said the tax measures, such as the increase in Value Added Tax, the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy), Communication Service Tax, would increase transport fares and food prices and worsen the country’s inflation.
“The Tax Justice Coalition Ghana calls on the government not to implement the 15 per cent VAT increase and totally scrap the E-Levy and focus more on implementing the more progressive taxation of income and property,” he said.
GIK/APA