Franklin Cudjoe says Good morning, Mr President, I see you have yet inaugurated another committee, this time to encourage us all to buy made in Ghana goods if we as a nation are ever going to be competitive, grow our industries and mobilise more revenues for development. It does seem on the surface a brilliant idea but we need to understand a few things that is working against this lofty goal. 1. The rising cost of doing business. Your government has made it extremely difficult for small scale businesses especially to survive for the last 6 years. There are too many taxes imposed on the businesses that want to be formalised. There is aggravated power cuts which will not end at least into the greater part of 2015. The President of Ghana hairdressers and beauticians told our forum on energy yesterday that it is nonsense to start a business only to expect losses and that most women now wear wigs because they cannot afford the erratic power cuts. We were also told by the CEO of the energy think tank, ACEP that Ghana your leadership is investing in turbines meant for submarines that run on kerosene or aviation fuel but now used for the T3 plant purportedly to give Ghana some 180MW of power that had never worked because the plant is being fed light crude oil. Dr. Amin of ACEP says again that the Kpong plant touted by the government to come on stream had in fact been promised to complement the national grid power since 2008. So what exactly has government been doing since 2008? Meanwhile the real installed capacity is a little over 3000MW whilst available capacity is a little over 2000 MW. The conclusion it seems is that government is fixated on power generation capacity when in fact we should be focused on strengthening available capacity. Quite frankly a power ministry is not what one needs at this time. 2. Ghana cannot be competitive when it has very offensive investment laws. You cannot bridge the rural-urban gap when you you expect local and foreign investors to cough up $500,000, $1,000,000 and $200,000 as seed capital. No serious emerging economy has such caps. You will only end up attracting a few companies in Accra , Kumasi, and Takoradi and none in Hamile, Tolon, Lolobi Kumasi, Axim and Dadieso. Already companies are suffering with a very very bad fiscal and monetary regime with some buying 100 tanker loads of water everyday. 3. Growing what you eat is noble but in the face of the above patriotism does not mean buying goods produced in Ghana at cut throat prices. All rational human beings spend a portion of their income on supplies and then save for a rainy day. They will buy the imported products that are cheaper than locally produced goods after all the import taxes. So, yes, I cannot fault you on setting up another committee to solve what we all know needs no committee except policy coherence and implementation of good economic decisions. Mr. President I give you the words of one time American Presidential hopeful Ross Perot who said If you see a snake, kill it. Dont set up a committee on snakes Good morning Mr. President.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 08:17:31 +0000
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