Ghana Needs a Strong Financial Sector – The Minister of Finance

Company News of Thursday, May 30, 2019

Source: Ghananewsagency.org

2019-05-30

Ken Ofori-Atta, the finance minister, said Ghana needed a robust financial sector, able to mobilize and channel domestic and foreign savings to finance the economic growth and transformation of the economy. more efficient and effective way.

He said the country needed to double its domestic savings rate from less than 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to more than 26 percent of GDP.

"The recent consolidation of the banking sector, led by the Bank of Ghana, has laid the foundation. The institutions of the sector are now stronger, "said Ofori-Atta in Accra on Wednesday, at the launch of the first National Forum for Development organized by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), on the theme" Ghana @ 100: Nation solidly developed.

"We will work on a number of initiatives to further strengthen the sector in order to increase national savings and facilitate access to financing, especially long-term, of our men and women of business, "he said.

These include strengthening the pension system, strengthening EXIM Bank and GIIF and launching a loan guarantee scheme to encourage bank lending to agriculture.

Others are launching a new dynamic development bank to provide long-term loans to agriculture and manufacturing; and a mortgage financing system to accelerate the development of the housing market and facilitate access for Ghanaian workers to decent housing.

Mr. Ofori-Atta said: "Along with these initiatives, we are also working on a plan to make Ghana a dynamic financial hub of the West African sub-region, and to attract thus important private external capital to help us speed up the Ghana we want! "

The National Development Forum will be a series of monthly forums aimed at engaging the public in development policy and promoting ownership and accountability for the implementation of national priorities.

It will focus on national issues of current interest in the economy; social development; spatial planning; infrastructure development; environment; and governance.

Mr. Ofori-Atta said that the country needed such a development forum to badyze and enhance the overall vision and framework; which is the Ghana Beyond Aid Program.

He said that "Ghana Beyond Aid" provided a powerful and compelling vision of the direction Ghana should take as a nation, and provided a high-level strategy and framework.

He further noted that these need to be further developed to be operational; adding that the Ministry of Finance was attacking certain elements; However, many other issues were beyond the scope of the department and required further study and discussion.

"And even on purely fiscal and financial issues, the ministry could benefit from outside expertise and knowledge," he said.

"That is why I wholeheartedly welcome the discussions that will be made possible by this development forum, and I hope to have the pleasure of learning from it and participating from time to time."

In his presentation, Professor Stephen Adei, Development Economist and NDPC Chair, emphasized that one hundred Ghana must be a solidly developed country, a "Better Ghana Beyond Aid".

He suggested the need for a long-term plan, containing the main coordinates of the way forward for realizing Ghana's 100-year national vision.

"I believe that the Ghana Beyond Aid document and the 40-year long-term plan project provide the key elements for doing so and that the NDPC intends to work with the Presidency and Parliament to do exactly that. this before the end of 2019. "

Professor Emerita Takyiwaa Manuh, Vice President of the NPDC, who chaired the meeting, said that the 1992 Constitution of Ghana provides the legal basis for governments to consider a just, equitable and inclusive development and to reinforce the expectations of governments. citizens to the country.

She noted that successive governments had sought to achieve this goal by embarking on medium-term interventions, that is, four years at a time.

Mrs. Carlien Bou-Chedid, elected president of the Federation of African Engineering Organizations, said that Ghana @ 100 would be at least a developed country, at least at the current level.

"I mean that, compared to the countries of today, Ghana will be advanced in terms of infrastructure, industrialization, per capita income and standard of living ".