Professor Godfred A. Bokpin, an Economist and Professor of Finance, says no economy can grow sustainably in a transformative manner without being intentional about indigenous businesses.
He called on the President to be intentional in supporting the various sectors and in the next four years, the government could point to these assisted businesses.
Prof Bokpin was speaking at the 2025 National Budget Review as part of the Ghana National Chamber Of Commerce And Industry (GNCCI) National Dialogue Series in Accra on Tuesday.
The GNCCI, in partnership with Absa Bank Ghana Limited, organised the Budget Review on the theme: “2025 National Budget Discourse: Implications for the Private Sector.”
The event served as a pivotal platform for dialogue, advocacy, and the exchange of ideas that will help chart a course for the future of businesses in Ghana.
He said these businesses could be picked from micro to medium, medium to large and be deliberate about the type of support to enable them to contribute to the development of the economy.
“From banking, from telecom, from mining, we must be intentional about increasing local content,” he added.
He said every country was looking at how they could create opportunities for indigenous businesses and that was the only way out.
Prof Bokpin said what the country had been doing over the years was to use politics and power to victimise indigenous businesses because of their political affiliations.
He said the government needed to come out with a structured instrument that allowed private capital to help them deliver on critical infrastructure.
He said when it comes to critical economic infrastructure, it should be able to pay for itself and “we should be looking at public-private partnership.”
The Economist said the country had a huge infrastructure deficit and needed a legislative framework, and an enabling environment that allowed private capital to feel comfortable to partner the public sector to deliver critical infrastructure.
He said the International Monetary Fund Programme needed to be renegotiated, because its design, structure, benchmark, indicative targets, and the growth trajectory, would be insufficient to lift millions of Ghanaians out of poverty.
He said looking at the new mandate, the government’s manifesto, and all of that, it was going to be challenging
situating that within the IMF-supported programme without disruptions.
“The most important thing is that because over the years we have not been able to maintain macroeconomic stability for long, so the programme will deliver some relative macroeconomic stability,” he added.
Mr Mark Badu Aboagye, CEO of GNCCI, said the Chamber had the responsibility to break down and simplify the budget for their members to enable them to take advantage of the opportunities available.
“I see another opportunity within the agriculture sector where the government is expected to pump in about 1.5 billion,” he said.
He said as a Chamber they would be holding the hands of their members to strategically align and leverage these opportunities.
The CEO said there were several sectors within the Chamber and once they were able to do that, “we will bring them on board and let them know that for this particular sector, these are these opportunities available.”
He said the Chamber would monitor keenly the implementation of the budget and engage government on any deviations from the target to bring them back on track.
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