Economist and Professor of Finance at the University of Ghana, Godfred Bokpin, has urged a strategic shift in Ghana’s economic approach, emphasising the need to prioritise sectors that create meaningful employment opportunities.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show during a discussion on the cedi’s performance, Prof. Bokpin explained that although gold accounts for a significant portion of Ghana’s economy, its contribution to government revenue and job creation has been limited.
“Largely, 23 percent of our economy is driven by gold. That has not impacted our revenue envelope that much, and that has not created a lot of decent jobs. So you see the economy growing positively, but the employment response is very weak because the growth drivers are not coming from the labour-intensive sub-sectors of the economy. So we have been celebrating what we call jobless growth,” he stated.
Highlighting the country’s economic challenge, Prof. Bokpin stressed the importance of shifting towards “job-rich” growth. This means deliberately focusing on labour-intensive sectors such as manufacturing and value addition to ensure economic expansion translates into job creation.
“Going forward, the economy the President wants to build must be job-rich. We are looking for job-rich growth. Then in that case, he has to be deliberate in ensuring that the growth is driven by the labour-intensive sub-sectors of the economy. Where can you get that? You can get that from manufacturing, value addition,” he said.
In addition to employment concerns, Prof. Bokpin pointed out the environmental damage caused by gold mining and called for a halt to exporting raw gold.
Instead, he advocated for processing gold locally to maximise economic benefits and protect the environment.
“Apart from gold, which is destroying our environment, the next move should be not exporting our gold in the raw form. Let’s take that decision now. The goodwill is there, the neighbouring environment is there, the uncertainty at the global level places us at an advantage,” he explained.
He emphasised the importance of processing gold rather than exporting it in its raw form.
“Let’s also do that which makes us unique in the market, because everyone is looking within before they look outside,” he added.
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