Dr. Michael Ayamga-Adongo, a Development Economist and lecturer at the University for Development Studies has stated that Ghana went back to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout because the government failed to build a good economy.
“There’s no denying the fact that currently the global economic environment is turbulent and countries that have weak economic structures suffer the most. Over the years I think that we have largely failed to build resilience in our economy and diversified it from dependence on foreign goods; depending on only oil and gold.”
According to him oil and gold are susceptible to trends in the global arena and that is why Ghana is suffering the most.
Speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, Dr. Adongo observed that Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s assertion that digital infrastructure is more impactful to the Ghanaian economy cannot be entirely true.
Dr. Bawumia speaking recently at the launch of two new high-level information technology programmes at Accra Business School said “if you gave me 1000 interchanges and the Ghana card, I would choose the Ghana card because it has more impact.”
However, Dr. Michael Adongo “thought it was more theoretical than anything serious.”
He continued that “you cannot relegate the importance of physical infrastructure and you cannot also deny the fact that if you have significantly digital improved systems we’re going to reap some significant benefits. One thing you need to know is that you need physical infrastructure for digital infrastructure to work.”
According to the Development Economist, physical infrastructure is a necessary condition for digital infrastructure to function. He said Ghana’s infrastructure is still deplorable.
“A part from a few areas in the cities, the rural areas are more or less still dependent on very bad road infrastructure, very poor internet connectivity, you name them. When you say you want to move right away into digital infrastructure, prioritising those ones when we have not reached the point where we can make good use of that technology is a problem. So we need a balanced approach to both,” he added.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Osuman Kaapore Tahiru|Ghana
