An Economist and lecturer at the University for Development Studies (UDS), Dr. Michael Adongo believes Ghana going back to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help at some point in the immediate future is an open possibility.
According to Dr. Adongo, this decision will be motivated by the fact that all the economic indicators paint a gloomy picture of the economy.
His statement comes on the back of a recent pronouncement by the Finance Ministry as well as a Bloomberg survey suggesting that Ghana might have to return to the IMF for financial assistance.
He said the public sector is faced with the problem of a mushroom of workers which, in the long run, cripples the economy.
He, therefore, reckons the need for Ghana to devise a strategy of transferring some of the public sector workers to the private sector in order to free up the public sector payroll if the country wants to avoid revisiting the Bretton Wood institution (IMF).
Dr. Adongo indicates that most of the workers in the public sector are dormant; the reason government should consider laying off those idle workers and engage the people who will be contributing significantly towards productivity in order to reduce the pressure on the payroll.
“Where we find excess labor, we more or less send some of them to the private sector where they can actually work and contribute meaningfully to productivity, rather than having people sitting down and earning money for no work done. I think that it is time we begin to use the huge public sector to support the private sector growth by way of labor transfer to the private sector. I will not be surprised even though I don’t expect it if the finance minister announces at the next budget reading that they are taking steps to ask IMF to intervene”. He told William Jalulah on ‘Daybreak Upper East’ program today.
Touching on what the future holds for the country, the renowned economist predicts a bleak one for the country.
He opines that the country’s interest in exploiting all its sources now without investing in ventures that will yield significant returns means future generations will suffer in order to pay some of the country’s debts.
Source|A1radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Elijah Beyeni Yenibey|Ghana
