Director of the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana, Professor Peter Quartey, has urged government to ensure engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are formulated around home-grown policies on agriculture and industrial transformation that will make the economy robust.
Speaking to journalists during ISSER’s post mid-year budget review discussions, Prof. Quartey said given the fact that global events continue to impact negatively on the local economy, it is necessary that discussions with the Fund for the Enhanced Domestic Programme proposed by government focus on supporting policies that will improve agriculture, industrial transformation and revenue mobilisation.
“The IMF certainly will engage you on what you have and what you want to do. And so, any policy we prepare should focus on agriculture. Agriculture is key. We may face imminent food crisis if we don’t tackle challenges in agriculture. So I want to see some investment into irrigations, seed varieties in the value chain, credit guarantee for agriculture, etc. For me that is very critical; let’s solve the food problem.
“Two, revenue enhancement. We have said time and time again that we cannot continue to rely on tax revenue alone. We have non-tax revenue – for example, the state-owned enterprises. Are we getting enough from them, as well as trying to block the leakages from our tax system? With digitalisation, we have seen a lot more being channelled online, how do we strengthen it to ensure we rake in more revenue?
“Ghana needs domestic policies to withstand the global shocks. Structural change of the economy is key to Ghana building resilience against global shocks,” he said.
Source: Bnft