Strengthening Ghana's Private Sector Is Definitely Not Rocket Science

I was taken aback when I read a Ghanaweb.com news story  about an appeal said to have been made recently by Hon Yaw Osafo Marfo to the German Ambassador to Ghana,  Mr. Christoph Retzlaff.

According to the story, Hon Yaw Osafo Marfo, the senior minister, appealed to Mr. Christoph Retzlaff for Germany to help "...strengthen Ghana's private-sector." How very odd.

The question there is: How can Germany, a competitor nation of ours in global trade,  possibly be expected in good faith to help strengthen Ghana's private sector, companies from which potentially could one day compete aggressively with German companies, for a share of global trade?

In replying to that incredibly naive request, Mr. Christoff  Retzlaff  apparently replied  diplomatically that Chancellor Merkel would invite Ghana to the next G20 meeting in Berlin - where the government of Ghana could make its case to Germany's business leaders. Spot on - and very clever.

God give us patience. With respect,  it is important that those who lead our nation understand clearly that Ghana's private sector can only be strengthened, when interest rates are low (below 3 percent), corporate tax rates for  businesses are the lowest in the world,  and, above all, when personal income tax is abolished in Ghana.

Everything else needed to make Ghana prosperous will flow from that. Simple.

If personal income tax is abolished in Ghana, it will immediately attract and incentivise scores of German businesses (and those from many other advanced countries) to make Ghana their African and Middle East headquarters, without any prompting by the very clever Yaw Osafo Marfos of our country.

And when they finally move their African and Middle East headquarters here, they will doubtless employ qualified Ghanaians; and purchase or build offices, homes and factories across Ghana - all of which will create growth in the real  economy, and lead to increased employment opportunities for the younger generations.

Indeed, the strengthening of Ghana's national econony's private-sector is not rocket science. It is very, very, very simple - if one does lateral thinking, that is.

If only our unimaginative "chew-and-pour-educated" ruling elites would be courageous enough to step out of the shadow of conventional economic thinking, they would immediately realise that abolishing personal income tax is the holy grail of wealth creation in all nations with endemic poverty and mass youth unemployment.

Abolishing personal income tax  will immediately boost incomes of all working people and incentivise the hardworking and ambitious in society - and help hasten the creation of an entrepreneurial culture
amongst the younger generations.

Hon Yaw Osafo Marfo will find that  if  the government of which he is such a prominant member, builds a close working relationship with, and constantly pays attention to the concerns of Ghana's leading businesspeople (regardless of their political affiliations), and  that of the various trade and industry associations that represent players in all the different sectors of our national economy, it will always result in policies that benefit and strengthen the private sector - to enable it play its proper role in the transformation of  Ghana into a prosperous society. Simple, really. We rest our case.