‘We are reaping fruits of poverty’

Economic policy analyst, Korsi Dzokoto

Economic policy analyst, Korsi Dzokoto has expressed deep concerns about Ghana’s economic challenges, attributing the current hardships experienced today to a direct result of years of economic mismanagement by the current government.

Speaking to the media after a forum organized by the Caucus of Democratic Governance on the theme, “The alarming exodus of skilled labour from Ghana: Political and economic strategies aimed at trend reversal an immediate necessity”, Korsi Dzokoto outlined how the nation is reaping the fruits of poverty, contributing to a surge in skilled labour migration.

According to the Economic policy analyst, Ghana’s economy has become increasingly unstable due to the high cost of living and stagnating incomes, highlighting the fact that Ghanaians continue to go through cost of living crises with meagre incomes that have not seen increment in years.

“People are going through the cost of living crisis, we have to also pay for the debt that the government has incurred so the government has to do a debt exchange of over 200 billion cedis where everybody who had invested their pension and savings in government bond has to pay the price or it so what is going on today is not just a factor, it is multiple factors that this economy has not been run well and over time we are all going through the hardship and that has also informed the exodus of skill labour in the country,” he bemoaned.

He attributed the recent increase in migration of skilled labour not just to isolated economic issues but to what he described as a systemic failure of Ghana’s economic fundamentals, pointing to the ongoing weakness of the cedi against the dollar.

Recalling a statement by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, he noted, “I’m quoting Dr. Bawumia When the fundamentals are weak, the exchange rate will expose you. It is true yesterday, it is true today, and it will be true tomorrow”.

The analyst argued that government borrowing has soared with little productive investment to show for it, leaving the country’s economy vulnerable.

“This government has overborrowed and moved the debt to GDP from 57% to 100% in 2022. That has been a major cause of what Ghanaians are going through today. The fact is that even if they borrowed and all these monies were invested in a productive sector, the economy should be on its feet to be able to pay back its debts and for the first time in our history, we have defaulted in payment, borrowed monies were not used to build the economy to pay back these debts,” he lamented.

He further addressed the mounting debt and poor economic policies to salvage the economy, including the government recently introducing a debt exchange program, which has impacted citizens’ pensions and savings.

“The government had to do a debt exchange of over 200 billion cedis where everybody who had invested their pension and savings in government bonds had to pay the price for it.”

Korsi Dzokoto argued that this mismanagement has created a cycle of poverty and suffering, now evident across all demographics.

He emphasized that the economic challenges faced today are the result of past policy decisions, pointing out that from 2017, when the current government assumed office, its policies should have yielded benefits by now.

According to Korsi, the opposite appears to be true.

“If the management of an economy is a policy implemented against policy outcomes, we should be reaping the fruit of it, and the fruit we are reaping now is suffering; it’s the poverty, the cost of living crisis.”

He further mentioned that the current economy has not been poorly run with the government blaming past pandemics for Ghana’s woes.

He called on the Government to desist from attributing the economic crises to COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war since there is no data to back their claim.

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