The vice president of Ghana Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has given out some measures that can be done to help the country in overcoming the economic challenges that we are currently facing.
He explained that, it Is imperative to restore fiscal and debt sustainability, limit import dependency and retain the chunk of our foreign exchange earnings.
He said, for instance, fiscal and debt sustainability was one of the key issues the Government put on the table in the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.
“For us to address the current economic crisis, we have to take bold, difficult and firm decisions and adjust to the global and domestic realities”.
The vice president said this in a keynote address delivered at the second edition of the Standard Chartered Digital Banking Innovation and FinTech Festival in Accra on Wednesday.
The vice president underscored the need for the nation to be self reliant with regards to the mode of production of basic consumer items such as rice, tomatoes and toohpicks, adding; “We have to reduce import dependency as a nation”.
“Our foreign exchange regime is quite loose and we must tighten. We must change the nature of production and trade services because most of our foreign exchange earnings on trade do not stay in Ghana and so we’ve been having recurrent account deficit” Dr. Bawumia added.
The two day forum was on the theme: “Towards a Digital Economy; Positioning Africa as a FinTech Innovation Hub”, which attracted entrepreneurs, government officials, policymakers and financial and FinTech experts across the globe to brainstorm on how to build robust digital economies in Africa.
The vice president said it was also prudent to digitise the Africa economies to enhance financial inclusion and take advantage of the fourth industrial revolution.
Ghana, he said was leading the way in Africa in terms of digitising her economy, noting that she reached a maturity stage in access to financial inclusion.
“Just this morning, I was reading that Ghana has reached a maturity stage in access to financial inclusion at the ongoing MobileWorld conference in Rwanda”, Dr Bawumia said, adding; Ghana scored 100 per cent financial inclusion.
He attributed the success chalked in her financial inclusion journey to the various digital infrastructure, mobile money interoperability payment system, universal QR code, Ghana.gov payment platform and other policy interventions rolled out by the government.
