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According to EconomyWatch.com, Ghana leads the
world as the fastest growing economy in 2011 with GDP growth pinned at 20% |
A
couple of weeks ago, a good friend of mine, Asiedu Acquah, a Ghanaian Harvard
student currently undertaking research in London, posted these lines on his
facebook wall, “No free access
for me to the African historical collections at Oxford University because
Ghana, by World Bank rankings, is a middle income country (not poor).”He
then congratulated his country folks, but was quick to add a rather witty line
“No freebies for your citizens
anymore…”
Well,
officially, Ghana has attained a middle income status, more specifically, a
lower middle income. Lower middle-income countries are those with per
capita Gross National Incomes of between $1,006 and $3,975 per year.
Let
me begin by throwing some research findings at you:
a)
According to EconomyWatch.com, Ghana leads the world as the fastest growing
economy in 2011 with GDP growth pinned at 20% b) Ghana has the largest Per
Capita Income (PCI) in West Africa and 21st on the continent c) Latest figures
released by Ghana’s Statistical Service indicate the country’s economy stands
at GH¢44 billion d) Ghana joined the league of oil producing countries in
December, 2010 with 85,000 barrels of crude oil in a day (compare that with
Nigeria’s 2.2 million per day) e) China is the fastest growing largest economy
in the world, but Ghana tops the world as the fastest growing economy.
Now,
here is a data from EconomyWatch.com. The data points reportedly come from
the IMF’s tracker of GDP Growth in constant prices in the
national currency (not in dollars).
“Ghana
20.146 %, Qatar 14.337 %, Turkmenistan 12.178 %, China 9.908 %,
Liberia 9.003 %, India 8.43 %, Angola 8.251 %, Iraq 7.873 %, Ethiopia 7.663 %,
Mozambique 7.548 %, Timor Leste (East Timor) 7.4 %, Laos 7.395 %.”
So,
what magic wand transformed or is transforming Ghana’s economic fortunes almost
at a cheetah’s speed? Oh the word cheetah reminds me of George Ayittey, the
Ghanaian Economist at American University and the economic revolution he seems
to be sparking among many African youth lately. You have probably heard about
Cheetah Generation; if not look at Patrick Awuah and his brainchild, Ashesi University—he’s
the epitome of a true African cheetah! His new campus opened last month at
Berekuso. I salute you, Mr. Awuah. As a Ghanaian diaspora myself, you’re a big
inspiration. Oops…where did we leave off? We were talking about a certain magic
wand, huh? Ok, so the wand that is transforming Ghana is quite obvious: oil.
But,
wait a second. Experience has it that oil by itself does not grow an economy.
Doubt it? Well if it does, Nigeria would be the new China of Africa. Over the
past 50 years, Standard Bank estimates that the country has made about $6
trillion out of oil. However, is it even ironic that Nigeria still imports 60%
of its own fuel because it lacks domestic refining capacity and power outage is
very common? Perhaps it’s the Dutch disease or simply a Nigerian disease or a
combination of both.
Let
me ask again, what forces are behind Ghana’s economic gains of late? I will
attempt to provide some answers.
a.
Oil. Thanks to Tullow, Kosmos, GNPC, the E.O Group (by Mr. George Yaw Owusu and
Dr. Kwame Bawuah-Edusei); and the Elephant and Umbrella parties! I know some
hardwired party loyalists aren’t happy–if you’re one of them, “massa”, take it
easy! Who said the elephant can’t use the umbrella in dire weather
conditions…hurricane Irene, for example? Or the umbrella won’t add essence to
its own existence by making itself useful to the elephant? You’re laughing out
loud, aka LOL, aren’t you?
b.
The amazing success of the telecoms sector. You’ve got to agree with me — about
75% of Ghanaians are mobile phone subscribers, research confirms. This is
certainly a record-breaking percentage in Africa. Our grandmas and grandpas are
fast availing themselves to the technological dictates of today. Go to Nkrumah
Circle in Accra, and catch a glimpse of a dynamic African mobile phone market.
Someone once joked that Nkrumah Circle be renamed, Phone Circle. I was all for
it except that it would make it into Guinness Book of Records as the dumbest
idea in 2011.
Thanks
to the continued liberalization of the telecom sector by successive regimes.
Thanks also to network service providers – MTN Ghana (aka Areeba),
Vodafone, Kasapa (aka Expresso), Zain, Tigo (aka Buzz), and Airtel.
On
the lighter side, to make it big in Ghana as a network service provider, don’t
ever go by a local name such as Kasapa. That would be a mild insult to
Ghanaians’ march to civilization aka westernization, and you’d be punished
severely by customers. Instead, choose sexy English names — Expresso, Airtel
etc.
c.
Entrenched democracy. ‘Free and fair elections’, relatively strong
institutions, freedom of speech and of the press…did I miss anything? Oh yea,
even professional serial callers are tolerated — a little bit of
demo-cracy and demo-crazy mixed in a charged theatrical atmosphere of
democratic frenzy.
For
your information, politics of insult is a ridiculously easy way to become a
“national hero” overnight in Ghana. Just aim at the biggest guys in office
and shoot them with mortal insults. The Police will arrest you almost
always. What next? Your entire party members would swallow their brains and
stand by you in solidarity –but that’s what being a true party member entails,
right? The media would spice it up as usual and before you know, you’re a
national hero with a towering swagger like that of Nelson Mandela.
Democracy
is sweet but abuse of democracy is bitter. As Ghanaians, we need to sorely tame
our long democratic bayonets, I mean our tongues. If that’s too difficult,
perhaps we should set our tongues on our teeth and give them fine cuts to size.
d.
Ease of doing business. Ghana is ranked 92 by the World Bank in terms of
ease of doing business. Not a great rank, but a remarkable improvement over
past rankings. Ghanaian politicians are coming to terms with the reality that
making it difficult for investors, both local and foreign, to establish
business is not the smartest strategy to grow an economy. Don’t be surprised
that it took more than five decades for the smartest amongst us to be fully
convinced of the wisdom in removing bureaucratic bottlenecks in the way for
entrepreneurs. Well, at least, we’re getting it “small small”; we aren’t going
back. That’s for sure.
The
above records are impressive; Ghanaians need to take a break and pat themselves
on the back for enabling their lone Black Star to shine through the often dark
African clouds to the outside world. Political emancipation of Sub-saharan Africa began
right here in Ghana, and economic emancipation seems to be gathering momentum
here again. It’s a good time to be a Ghanaian huh?
However,
folks, there’s one more thing that Ghanaians need to pay particular attention
to as greatness knocks steadily on their door. There’s the need to take the
bull by the horns by passing the long-overdue Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA). The FOIA basically “…establishes rules whereby citizens, foreign
nationals, corporate bodies, and associations, etc., can request access to, and
receive information held by government agencies.” Without the Act, taxpayers
cannot challenge government agencies on how they spend their own monies.
The United Nations
General Assembly, in 1946, actually recognized that freedom of
information is a “…fundamental human right and the touchstone for all freedoms
to which the United Nations is consecrated.” Barack Obama on his historic visit
to Ghana reiterated the need for freedom of information bill. Nigeria,
under J. Goodluck, has passed FOIA into law in 2011. What is Ghana waiting for?
This
call is even more urgent given the fact that Ghana has joined the ranks of oil
producing nations and also that corruption alone is estimated to eat away
between $195 and $429 million of the nation’s revenue cake annually. Quite a
chunk of cash, isn’t it? It seems like the bad boys are making it big at the
expense of the good guys. You don’t want to encourage that!
What
you can do? When you make that call to Joy, Peace, Nhyira radio stations,
mention the FOIA and request that government takes action in passing it into a
comprehensive law. It won’t be too hard on your pocket, trust me. If you’re a
journalist, add your voice to mine to call attention to FOIA, if you’re a
politician, look at the long-term good of Ghana and press for FOIA. What if
you’re simply a facebook addict reading this article at myjoyonline.com,
Ghanaweb or Modernghana? Copy the link and paste in your facebook wall. The
link is colorless; it won’t tarnish your wall. Together, we accelerate the
tempo of Ghana’s march to economic freedom. Poverty sucks, you know that.
To
conclude, Ghanaians once again deserve commendation for making it to the middle
income category, and for leading Africa and the world in terms of GDP growth in
2011. At this point, it’s forward ever — there is no turning back on progress.
The good news is that with the passage of the Freedom of Information
legislation, the nation stands the prospect of consolidating its economic gains
by giving Azuma Nelson’s right hand blow to corruption, and promoting a culture
of transparency and accountability in the public sector.
In
the end, Ghana is starved less, it grows more, and we all become better-off
–including the few ‘hardworking’ corrupt nuts. You are not one of them, are
you?
