Ghana's Economy Will Emerge Stronger From Its Present Difficulties

If those who lead our country want an example of a nation that has gone through the kind of economic difficulties Ghana  is currently experiencing, but which is now making considerable progress  economically, let them look no further than Greece.

 At the height of its troubles,  the Greek government had to impose sundry taxes on a people famous for their dedication to evading taxes, cut public-sector spending - including the slashing of public-sector employees' salaries across board - amongst other austerity measures designed  to rebalance public finances,  to enable Greece  qualify for  a bailout from  EU governments, the  European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

 Today Greece's economy is recovering -  and it is also  attracting foreign investment. If Ghana is forced by circumstances to dispose of state assets, our leaders would be wise to study the acquisition of management rights to run half of the port of Piraeus, by the giant Chinese carrier Cosco - and use it as yet another privatisation model.

According to the UK newspaper,  the Guardian, Cosco paid €500 million to run part of the port of Piraeus for 35 years. It is a far better way for Ghana to unlock some of the value in its state-owned enterprises (SOE) - than allowing greedy and dishonest public officials to strike opaque deals with foreign carpetbaggers that sell our nation short.

Apparently Cosco intends to buy a majority stake in that part of the port of Piraeus still in state hands. It also wants to buy the port of Thessaloniki when the sale of  that port, and Greece's railway network, as well as  a number of airports are put out to international tender. Why do we not opt for that transparent asset-disposal model too more frequently than is currently the case?

It is an outrage that blocks in oilfields off Ghana's shores are being
disposed off in secret deals brokered by public officials. Why not auction them in  public auctions  to the highest bidders - so that Ghana gets the best prices for oil and gas deposits that after all are diminishing assets?

If we put state asset-disposals out to international tender, is it not likely that we will see situations in which some of the best-resourced state-owned Chinese companies in the energy sector, and Japanese power companies, for example, compete to acquire management rights to run  the Volta River Authority (VRA), Ghana Grid Company Limited (Gridco), Bui Power Authority (BPA), for extended periods?

 If that were to happen, it will end up  turning all those public-sector power companies  into efficient and profitable entities - and, eventually, they will all be modernised without a pesewa of taxpayers' cash being spent on them.

 The key is for our leaders  to study privatisation models like Cosco's deal with Greece to manage half of the port of Piraeus - for inspiration. Today, Cosco has modernised the piers in its section of the port of Piraeus,  and handles 6000 containers daily efficiently.

Perhaps that privatisation model  could fetch the nation about US$1billion in restructuring the ports of Tema and Takoradi.  Deals of that nature, and floating part of the government's stake in SOE's on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), will generate much-needed funds for the national treasury.

Let us take a leaf from recession-defeating Greece's book.  Let us be inspired by the tenacity of the Greek people, who went through hell-on-earth conditions, to get where they are today. Although things look bleak at the moment, Ghana's economy  will definitely emerge stronger from its present difficulties.