IEA celebrates silver jubilee
The Board Chairman of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Dr Charles Mensa, says weak fiscal management of the economy can be a major drawback to the country’s industrialisation.
He said after years of deficit and debt financing, Ghana was still grappling with high rates of unemployment and other fiscal challenges.
According to him, the reason policy makers continue to create deficit is because it is an easy way out, and future generations who are affected by such decision “are not around to shout”.
Dr Mensa made these remarks in Accra yesterday at a ceremony to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the IEA. The celebration was on the theme; “25 years of shaping the future”.
It was attended by representatives of the various political parties, the clergy, academia and civil society organisations (CSOs).
Economic development
Explaining why the IEA addresses political issues although it is an economic institute, Dr Mensa said economic development was not principally economic phenomenon alone; it was also a factor of political philosophy.
He said altering economic policy without dealing with institutional problems would not help the cause of development.
Dr Mensa expressed concern over what he described as the “colonial nature of our economy” which is founded on the export of raw materials.
He said in the next five years, the IEA would focus on how “we can rebuild our economy and move away from the colonial nature of the economy”.
Early beginnings / achievements
The IEA was founded by Dr Mensa in 1989, during a military regime and in the era of the ‘Culture of Silence.’
At that time, many Ghanaians did not appreciate the prospects of a policy think tank but Dr Mensa and some pioneer collaborators blazed the trail to nurture what has now become a strong pillar of the country’s democratic and economic development.
The IEA founder said one of the major achievements of the institute was the organisation of capacity building programmes for Members of Parliament (MPs) at the beginning of the Fourth Republic to enable the MPs to discharge their parliamentary duties more effectively.
He recounted many achievements chalked up by the IEA over the past 25 years, which included the drafting of many bills that had been passed into law.
Tributes
Dr Mensa paid glowing tribute to many individuals who shared the IEA dream and helped to nurture it over the years.
They include his wife and Executive Director of the IEA, Mrs Jean Mensa; a former Chairman of the Council of State, Prof. Daniel Adzei-Bekoe; a former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Prof. J.S.Djangmah; a former Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Justice Emile Short, and Justices J. N. K. Taylor, J. H. Coussey, D. F. Annan and Robert Hayfron-Benjamin.
The Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, the Most Rev Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle, in an exhortation, commended the IEA for its achievements over the years and urged CSOs and all Ghanaians to also contribute towards making Ghana a better place to live in.
He said the country was endowed with enormous natural resources, stressing, “We can make it and we have to make it; we cannot fail the Lord our God”.