All hands on deck to save nation from economic challenges - Pianim

A renowned economist and statesman, Kwame Pianim, has called for a concerted effort by all to lift the country out of what he described as self-inflicted social and economic challenges.

He attributed the prevailing economic difficulties in the country to largely man-made factors.  

“The shoots of the miracle sprang from the ashes of the post-COVID-19 crises when Ghana was effectively bankrupt and public debt hovered over 90 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2023,” the economist said.

He also described the country’s debt situation as unacceptable, adding that loss of savings from the financial clean-up exercise by the government touched almost every family, with poverty rate hovering around 27 per cent and rising.  

Mr Pianim made the call at this year’s annual leadership lecture series of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) yesterday on the theme: “Re-imagining Ghana's development trajectory for a peaceful prosperous nation by 2057; Our 100th anniversary, through the perspective of the people.”

The lecture was attended by academia, traditional authorities, civil society organisations and dignitaries such as a former Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho; a Ghanaian football administrator and politician, Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, and the UPSA Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abednego Feehi Okoe Amartey.

Resolve

The business advisory and investment consultant said the country must “change gears for a new development trajectory” and must resolve not to go for an 18th International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal.

He said the nation must undertake some preparatory works to change its development path if it wanted to compete favourably on the global market by the time it attained 100th independence anniversary in 2057.

Mr Pianim said that citizens must also feel safe to save and invest at home, while creating a modicum of respect for the rule of law.

He said there should also be relative political stability, a less than two per cent of annual population growth rate, institutional checks and balances, as well as macro-economic stability underpinned by strong and stable financial systems.

Mr Pianim further called for a competent human resource base, particularly entrepreneurs who can scan the global supply chain and identify products and services the nation has comparative advantages in.  

“We envision a steady and prudent annual growth rate of between five per cent and six per cent to attain a minimum Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $500 billion with a modulated population of 45 million by 2057.

This is feasible and can be willed into reality with leadership at all levels in our communities, institutions and homes,” the investment consultant added.

“We often nostalgically say, either we shame ourselves into action or lull ourselves into resignation and acceptance of our poor circumstances,” he said.

Mr Pianim said at the time of independence around 1957, Ghana’s per capita GDP was higher than that of South Korea and that of China and slightly lower than that of Malaysia.  

He said the country’s per capita income was hovering around $2,000, with its population increasing from around 6.6 million in 1960 to over 30 million now.

The rise in population translates into 407 per cent.

Mr Pianim, who is also a former Board Chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA), said the population of South Korea over the same period rose from 25 million to 51.63 million, an increase of 106 per cent, while the world average was 162 per cent.

He said the two countries were not too far apart in annual population growth rate at around 3.27 per cent for Ghana and 3.01 per cent for South Korea in the 1960s.  

Mr Pianim, however, said that South Korea managed to bring down its annual growth rate to under one per cent with its “two-is-enough” slogan, while Ghana’s current high fertility rate and declining mortality have kept its annual growth rate at around 2.1 per cent.  

On this path, he projected Ghana’s population to hit 69.2 million by 2057, stressing that no nation had developed with an annual population growth rate of two per cent and above.

To change our current development trajectory, therefore, the economist suggested the need to lower the nation's annual population growth rate from 2.1 per cent to under one per cent, saying “our women cannot continue to give birth to six children per woman on the average”.