Ghana’s economy is in shambles because the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, is not intelligent in managing the economy, broadcaster Blessed Godsbrain Smart, has noted.
According to him, there are some regulations every Finance Minister should follow to ensure a booming economy as he learnt from the administrations of Yaw Osafo Maafo, Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, Kwabena Duffour, Seth Terkper, the late Kwasi Botchwey amongst others.
Rather than concentrating on Gross Domestic Product which Captain Smart says is an outdated economic indicator, Human Development Index, he says, should be the priority of any serious Finance Minister.
READ ALSO: Yaa Titi calls for arrest and prosecution of Roads and Finance ministers
He analysed what he calls the Revenue Generation CONSULTATION which every Finance Minister must adopt in order to run a better economy. The ‘consultation’ he explained as follows:
C – Conscience: The Finance Minister must apply conscience when taxing the people. He should put into perspective what certain people in certain parts of the economy go through before rendering an economic activity to make income. He cited the trauma the typical tomato seller for instance goes through by transporting the products from the farms to the market centres for sale.
O – Overboard: Overtaxing people will bring financial stress on the taxpayer which will provide room for evasion.
N – Nice: The Finance Minister must be nice to the people by applying neutrality where possible without taxing some people more than others.
S – Submission: A Finance Minister must submit to advice from experts. He should gather advice from the people who have the know-how on finance and economy to guide him on certain policies.
U – Unity: This is what Captain Smart calls the assembling of the Union of Brains. Once a while, a Finance Minister must put together all experts to gather knowledge from them collectively.
L – Leadership: He must lead the people to know that when you initiate any policy, it will come out positively and work effectively.
T – Table: A Finance Minister must table his failures and successes to ascertain how certain things worked and others didn’t. This he said is what would make him take a stock of his achievements and failures to guide his subsequent actions.
A – Average Ghanaian: The Average Ghanaian must be seen by the Finance Minister as supreme according to Captain Smart. Despite the knowledge one may possess as a Finance Minister, sampling the market women to find out how they survived their businesses from the tabletop through to owning shops at Adum, Okaishie and other big markets will aid in so many ways.
T – Testing: One needs to artificially test the vibrancy of his economy as a Finance Minister with certain policies to ascertain its degree of buoyancy. This he indicated will provide some roadmap for survival during external shocks such as the COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war which the government has blamed for all her economic woes. “If you fail to test the economy, the economy will test you,” he stated.
I – Intelligence: It is obvious a non-intelligent Finance Minister will lead the economy into a ditch. Captain Smart averred a government devoid of an intelligent finance minister is seen as “full of fools”, citing the coallpsed banks as an example where over GH₵29 billion was spent to collapse banks, render people unemployed and failed to achieve the purpose of the collapse whilst only GH₵9 billion could have been used to save those banks. He simplified it in a perspective as “a man whose child is sick and he is told to provide $9million to save him but he says no, let him die so that I use $29million to organise his funeral.”
O – Opulence: The ostentatious lifestyle with its profligate expenditure by the government is an act every finance minister must avoid to instill financial discipline.
N – Navigate, Notice and Nurture: According to Captain Smart, Ken Ofori-Atta only borrowed unnecessarily during the COVID times and Ghana is now in ruins. He couldn’t navigate well, he said. “Someone should follow you as [Finance minister] to alert you of your crookedness so that you go back and correct them,” he said that in explaining the ‘notice’ aspect adding that there should be some nourishment for the citizens which should not be at the detriment of the state such as allowing duty-free port every March. The Maakye host concluded by saying the last meaning of the ‘N’ is to “nurture by consultation.”
By Felix Anim-Appau|Onuaonline.com
