“It should be possible for indigenous Ghanaian business people to raise enough funds to help bailout the sinking Ghanaian economy, but they won’t because of the negative tag that they are likely to earn [from politicians] if they do,” says Groupe Nduom President, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom.
The political system is structured in a way that is so unfriendly to the Ghanaian business person, he observed.
Speaking at the 15th Annual Delegates’ Congress of the University Students Association of Ghana (USAG) at the University of Cape Coast, Central region, Dr. Nduom observed that under such “unfriendly conditions,” the only option for government is to resort to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) sponsored bailout, which comes with draconian conditions that always go against the ordinary citizen and work against the fate of the country.
To buttress his point, Dr. Nduom affirmed that he knows four Ghanaian companies that, together, could have raised the $918 million dollars loan Ghana has just contracted from the IMF.
He was not the least enthused about the fact that the economic direction of Ghana is driven by ideological stands, and questioned why such divisions should affect governmental policy and encouragement of Ghanaian businesses.
“No country has developed economically without governmental support. The USA, which prides itself as champions of capitalism do support their local industries.
As recent as the beginning of President Obama’s administration, it took the intervention of that administration to save local American banks and other automobile industries from collapsing,” Dr. Nduom stressed.
He, therefore, charged Ghanaians, particularly those in national administration, to consider realistic solutions to Ghanaian problems rather than to hide behind ideological stunt that only go to hurt Ghanaian businesses and eventually the ordinary people.
He also bemoaned the inability of the national administration to create conditions that would ensure ready market for home-grown products, and advised government to be truthful to Ghanaians about the causes of the energy crisis that has plagued the country for the past four past years.
“How do we grow as a country when we do not have market for goods produced in Ghana”, he questioned adding, “The only alternative under such circumstance is to have people craving foreign products and in the end monies raised by such foreigners end up in their country of origin”.
He, therefore, charged the students not to be swayed into political violence that seems to have taken centre stage in the country’s political activities, for it affects, negatively Ghanaian business people who travel abroad to raise funds for investments back home in the country.
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