Opinion | The financial / banking crisis of Ghana:

Ghana prepares to meet International Monetary Fund on March 20th^e 2019. According to Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta, Ghana does not know how to manage microfinance as well as savings and credit companies. The way forward is simple. Leave them alone or develop separate policy guidelines for levels of nonbank financial institutions. They are all unique with particular needs and aspirations.

Ghana should also be bold in telling the IMF that to ensure sustainable financial inclusion and make national capital financing a reality in Ghana, it will require the free movement of a new generation of young capital entrepreneurs. Ghana needs the new Jimoh Ibrahim, Ken Ofori Atta, Ken Thompsons et al.

In the same uncertainty before the meeting, which risks creating "Ghanaian ingenuity" to be included further down the aisle of purification, will not only be a traitor to financially marginalized people, but also a threat to entry and the emergence of new, young and dynamic entrepreneurs in the financial services sector.

The misdeeds of the elderly should in no way be an obstacle for young people. Many have the ambition to create businesses in the financial services sector. After all, it takes one generation to destroy and another to build, no matter what the price is.

As in all areas of business, business and the economy, entrepreneurship capital is essential and can only be maintained in an intergenerational approach. Unfortunately, this is the most neglected area of ​​business development among young people.

In the words of Mike Nyinaku, who for me are still in the news, "my generation started doing things not because we are smarter, but because these seniors dared at first and have lowered the barriers. "He goes further, saying:" Over the past decade, entrepreneurship in financial services in Ghana has evolved significantly. Banks came out of nowhere – obviously inspired by the extent to which the Nigerian invasion, combined with this Togolese aggression, has disrupted our market. "

Remarkably, Mr. Nyinaku says, "I think that in ten years, if we want the nation-building to be maintained, those who precede BEIGE must cross international borders. BEIGE should cover the nation, direct savings and colleagues should be market leaders. that another opportunity can be created for newcomers. It was at the launch of The Beige Bank. Obviously, we spoke to Mr. Kofi Amoabeng from the beginning which, according to him, started with a desk and a chair in his room.

Today, we all know the magnitude of Ghana's infrastructure deficit and its value. Interestingly, we are doing nothing to give a chance to the emergence of disruptive financing ideas. Encourage the pursuit of FDI and external financing. After ten years of commercial activity in the oil and gas sector, our financial services sector does not have the ability to provide the necessary coverage and investments. It took Exxon months to find a local partner.

Dr. Strive Masiyiwa said that in Africa, you do not set deadlines for your project. In addition to the porous nature of political economy, corruption and corruption on the continent, project financing is a major challenge. Liquid Telecom and its ambitious cable network project are not spared. In the same way as Alhaji Aliko Dangote's bold refinery project.

For Vice President Alhaji Dr. Bawumia, there should be an account for every Ghanaian. But this desire and this call are at the root of the breakdown of the very system that should inspire confidence and create a culture of saving. The Coordinated Agenda for Action is giving a new direction to financial inclusion, which of course can not be achieved by simple rhetorical and economic projections, nor by a tighter regulatory regime.

At every stage of the business cycle, the system is disrupted and should be encouraged to thrive. That's why Grameen Bank and Yunus Muhammad's Grameen Foundation remain a resilient model and this generation will need to build on that.

Of course, the financial / banking crisis in Ghana will stay with us for a while. Perhaps we are still faced with the most vile. It took almost a decade for Iceland, a small Nordic country of 33,780 inhabitants to recover from the banking crisis, which had managed to recover its growth in 2011. Two years later. Let me say that Ghana has not yet regained its growth.

The underlying causes of the banking crisis are the same for both countries. What I do not know, is that Ghana will share the courage of Iceland, which saw 29 bankers imprisoned in 2016, or will simply join their US counterparts to administer only austerity measures and continue to siphon the public funds that will end up in the pockets. friends as with the liquidity supports. Here I am talking about GAT. While thousands of young Ghanaians continue to come up with ideas, they do not have the financial means.

Well, it is also important to note that there is a forgotten generation in this whole debacle. Ghana has forgotten the next generation of capitalist entrepreneurs (the builders of financial enterprises, the new culture to mobilize and inject capital in strict compliance with good corporate governance practices). They have been denied space to participate and we are also denying them space for recovery. I belong to this generation if you care about it.

Experts and technocrats say we do not need a lot of banks. What they forget, is that Iceland had only three privately owned banks, which caused its financial crisis. They also fail to establish whether we do not need a hybrid financial services sector with respective regulatory regimes.

It is obvious that the distress of nonbank financial institutions is due to the banking crisis. We were in this country when commercial and universal banks entered the microfinance space and engaged in "Susu" type activities. They suddenly found the informal sector attractive and we openly looked at them to operate in a space that should be reserved for informal sector operators. What did we think of as a nation?