A Finance and Economics Professor at the University of Ghana, Godfred Alufar Bokpin, has expressed the need for Ghana to take a bold step to redesign its economic framework to reflect its own developmental aspirations.
Speaking at the 12th IMANI Africa-UPSA Students & Young Professionals African Liberty Academy (SYPALA) in Accra on Monday, August 24, 2026, he said Ghana’s economy was originally planned by the colonial masters to serve their interest and that trajectory has not changed substantially since independence.
According to him, the architecture of extraction, export of raw materials and import dependency that was put in place to serve external interests still defines how the economy functions today.
“We need to redesign an economic system that works for us. A system that serves our interest. We said we gained independence but the people did not leave,” Prof. Bokpin said.
He was speaking on the topic, ‘Building resilient economies to enhance inclusive governance in Africa’, at the academy which is designed to train new crop of future visionaries and leaders to carry the torch of liberty and blaze the trail of prosperity.
Prof. Bokpin warned that the current fixation on stabilising the cedi at all cost is coming with a heavy environmental price that the country is ignoring.
“We are compromising the ecological integrity of our environment in the name of a strong cedi,” he noted.
He added that Ghana risks celebrating economic figures that do not improve the lives of its people, citing its continued pursuit of growth without jobs and sustainability.
The obsession with headline numbers and currency stability, he averred, has masked deeper structural weaknesses that have persisted for decades.
Prof. Bokpin further asserted that economic growth that destroys the environment and fails to create employment for the youth cannot be described as progress in any meaningful sense.
He argued that the destruction linked to illegal mining and other environmentally harmful activities is being tolerated because of the short-term foreign exchange benefits, but the long-term cost to water bodies, farmlands and public health far outweighs any temporary currency gains.
For him, the conversation about resilience must shift from exchange rate figures to the quality of growth and its ability to create decent jobs for the teeming youth being churned out from the respective institutions yearly.
“We can’t celebrate any growth but growth that delivers job. We must not celebrate GDP because the environmental footprints that comes along isn’t positive,” Prof. Bokpin stressed.
He said inclusive governance will remain an illusion if the underlying economy is structured to benefit only a few while excluding the majority from productive participation.
The theme for SYPALA 2026 is “Africa’s Ascent: Forging Resilient Economies and Inclusive Governance” bringing together young Africans ready to learn, challenge ideas, exchange perspectives and shape the future of the continent.
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