Adnan Adams Mohammed
A finance expert has admonished the John Mahama administration to pay much attention to the foreign remittance sector.
Dr Richmond Atuahene notes that, foreign remittance sector is very huge which can end Ghana’s cyclical ritual of seeking relief from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other multilaterals.
Indicating that, remittances alone if tracked properly and allow all to pass through the banking system, it will be huge than the IMF $3 billion loan and other multilateral supports which mostly come with harsh conditions that affect ordinary citizens.
“So the first thing that I want to advise the President is that, he must strengthen the remittance or even create a new unit at the Central Bank, like Bangladesh gets 95% of remittances through the banking system. We get just about 50% so the other 50% doesn’t go into the banking system”, Dr Atuahene said in an interview last week.
“Even remittances alone will be bigger than the IMF loan. If we are able to track it, we will not go and beg for 3 billion dollars.”
He further expatiated that, “In 2023, the World Bank told us 4.7 billion, we track only 2.8 billion so 1.9 billion is gone. Previously, 4.2 billion we track 2.1 billion, those things are gone. But, if we put in a strong system, we will be able to track more. “Once we are able to track the remittances very well, it will help the management of the economy and also help the cedi to stabilize to bring inflation down.”
He also said the President must assembly technocrats who will help devise strategies on how to finance the nation’s huge debts owed to contractors.
“He must appoint people who understand the microeconomic issues to help you, that will be the biggest plus for him. Then the next one will be financing the debts, I am talking about the 31 million constructors’ debts and the energy.
“His Excellency must get a team as they had in 2010. You have a credible arrears repayment plan. So that maybe by three, or four years you have cleared and not created a new one. If you do that, I think the mantle is high but it makes it surmountable. I think with the brains and technical people if they allow them to help them they can achieve a lot in four years,” Dr. Atuahene noted.
