How Ghana’s rising star plunged into an economic crisis - BBC Africa 

And how are you going to pay for the day to day spending, when you invest it in infrastructure? Yes, maybe in the longterm, but debt would skyrocket even more.

@gombally Day to day spending should be kept in check and funded by tax receipts. Reform public procurement to prevent overspending on public contracts. Reform the public service to prevent fraud and corrupt practices like managers siphoning funds, creating ghost jobs, and hiring friends for political purposes. Cut ineffective subsidies. Simplify the tax system to incentivize exports and productive industries. Borrowing, especially foreign debt, should be used for productive means or to reduce overall interest costs in certain cases. For example, education and training, especially for industries that are able to add value to products and services on the global market. Investing in accessible broadband and electricity, this will help open up more of the country to opportunities from helping the farmer or small business owner connect with customers or increase new green field investments. Developing countries need to be fiscally prudent as they don't have a complex dynamic economy with multiple relatively successful industries to fall back on. They tend to rely on one or two sectors for most of their foreign exchange earnings. In addition, they can't issue all their debt in their local currency like the USA, UK or Japan which would help to reduce interest costs.

@@gomballysomebody has to build that infrastructure. Those millions of hired workers will put their salary back into the economy. And that built infrastructural will lead to other growth sectors which also hire workers who will put that salaries back into the economy. It just goes on and on if it’s done right.

@@lombardo141millions of chinese hired you mean

ghana doesn`t fund terrorist like pakistan or is a military controlled

No, they did it on purpose.

​@@user-ll8ym9or8cWhat do you mean?

what kind of corruption. Italy is still standing with the Mafia . There more to what meet the eyes. People were also blaming corruption in Niger only to discover that the country was being milked by those that claim to be its angels. IMF and World bank have destroyed most African economies. Why are people not taking about it . There is hidden pacts and International laws that restrict government to do anything. What is free market . The government can't subsidize anything or have alternative . Cooperation are the ones that detect what ordinary people can have or not . The monetary system ..There is your free market. Before IMF and World bank's free market policies Most countries were developing. It's a competition who has the biggest debt.

don't forget ESG was also responsible for ghana downfall.

@@michleslazlou7398 They are selling the same scripts to Morroco right now. They are even using Ghana as their highlight of progress 🤣🤣

Yes my thoughts exactly

A plenty of foreign forces at play.

Nailed it!

Just like Indonesia :(

Story of africa

You must be super intelligent

In fact, nothing is produced, everything imported and the population is not able to cope with the world's requirements for intellectual work in the fields of STEM, increasing STEM domination from the rest of the world and extremely low human labour skill is probably going to plunge africa in a serious hell by 2050, unless people turn back to their initial lifestyle and expertise which is hunting, fishing and farming the rich lands of crops and eat 5 times a day if they want. But willing to live a modern lifestyle whiile asia and the White ocuntries apply the STEM pressure is absolutely impossible. Of course there is corruption to tackle but in reality, modern prosperity would only come through scientific resource exploitation, not import and going to school working in an office that only produces balance sheets (banks) or services (regular office jobs). The STEM must be there, and it is an intellecutal thing, if it's not there, then return to farming

Perfectly said

​@@_Be_Still He is aware. Some argue that if the other candidate had won, there might have been different, sweeping reforms. However, such changes require sacrifice. It's not something achievable solely based on a candidate's determination; it demands continuous improvement. The question remains, are we prepared for it? Nigeria as a case study.

Very true and well said 💯👍

God helps those who help themselves. It's time we stop voting these corrupt people, and start punishing them when they are caught looting. We should go the Singapore way.Decades ago, Kenya and Singapore were at the same level. But Singapore decided to stop corruption and concentrate on building the country for the benefit of all. Kenyan politicians are some of the best paid in the continent but they still go ahead to steal our taxes, then we vote for them again because they belong to our tribes

Lord save Ghana leave the rest of the continent out of your mouth.

Well stated !

It’s sad that Putin has made blaming “The West” fashionable for all sorts of incompetent world leaders They now have an excuse to use “The West” as a convenient scapegoat for all their country’s problems

Well atleast one guy in the opposition know what's up (I.e. the guy who made the Maguire joke)

Westerners, especially poorer westerners of which there millions, look at corrupt, inept African leaders like this and aak themselves why their taxes should be given away to keep Africa's rich elite in luxury.

Akufo Addo is simply unintelligent. He blames everyone except his incompetence and his theivery.

Was there in July when the sanitation minister was caught with cash.

@@xq8152 Caught with cash? Don't you have a choice to keep your money in a bank account or keep it in your house? Which law in Ghana bars anyone from keeping any amounts of money with them in their house or bank account? The fact that you don't have money to keep in the house means that no one should keep their monies in the house? Finding money in someone's house is not the same as someone being caught with cash in her house.

Is Nigeria a joke to you?

@@Jo-sd3ch My uncle said full oil tankers come and go from Nigeria and no one has any record of the ships. Can you imagine how much money has been stolen due to oil?

​@@kofiboateng5509Your response is an indication of why corruption thrives in Ghana! You jeer the critical person and champion the corrupt. There is no specific law saying you must keep your money in a bank, but doesn 't it strike you as being at all odd that a senior civil servant with a salary of ( I am guessing) less than 10000 dollars should have cash sums of 1 million dollars at home? Critical thinking is needed.

So tell us, please.

Unfluff it ooo!

True! The guy's just another hired journalist inplant into the BBC by the criminal cartel to polish their activities before the real truth comes out. And they (The BBC) don't even know it.

Well, it is the BBC..

@@karriem5666 Well, it's TeddyBongo ...

💯I was looking for this comment!!

Jesus bro, you summed it up perfect.

❤✊🏽

Northern Goat (Adago) You tickle yourself and laugh. You think your safari park full of hyenas is better than Ghana? Aahh!! Dogs thinking cats are in trouble 😂😂

@@zigibeat3689 dey play

How can one get access to colonial records of that time?

He wont tell you because he made it up ​@@dee2ttown.

Dr Mahathir must be given due credit for Malaysia's economic success, his abrasive personality notwithstanding.

Countries like Nigeria etc have more money and can afford to buy more gold and keep in reserve and therefore have more GOLD RESERVE DIFFERENT from GOLD PRODUCTION OR GOLD DEPOSIT, where Ghana is the number 1 producer in Africa Even with gold reserves, Ghana currently is doing 16.67 tons, up from our 8 tons, and have plans of shoring up our reserves to 20 metric tons

Lemme guess. You’re Nigerian? How’s that Tinubu situation coming along these days? Also Ghana is the biggest producer of Gold in Africa. Focus on getting rid of kidnappers. Ghana will be fine.

​@@rigg13 so what?

Since when Nigeria lecture Ghana about economy crises? Do you know naira exchange value on black market since tinubu came to power?

​@@rigg13he is a Nigerian

🎯

William better not take us down this slippery slope!

Already in the hole

We are already in the hole same to ghana

Indeed, Ghana has so much Gold and that is still one of its top exports. Its sad that Ghana exports Gold. I wish you guys kept your Gold because that is literally money. Sell other things NOT gold. Exchanging gold for paper money is such a wrong move in my opinion. They can print the paper , but you can't print your gold. Also how long before the gold is all dug up then what do you have after that? All your gold should stay with you guys. Find other things to export. Such as cocoa/ oil. At least those items can always be regrown unlike Gold. Please African nations make wise moves.

which resources do Ghana have? i'm sure you will mention peace or electricity 😂

@@George-zd7mu Educate yourself, we live in the information age, this information is literally free. Use google.

@@George-zd7mu Why are you in the west so hell bent on wanting Africans to think they are poor? You guys are the poor ones, thats why you act the way you do. Such harsh and desperate ways. If you were rich like us, you would not stress about giving stuff away. You are so stingy , though you have been stealing from the continent for so centuries long, you still hold on to every last item like its new money.

@@George-zd7mu neither!!

He went to UNC-Chapel Hill?

@@minta_y3_d3n No. Chapel Hill in Takoradi, Ghana

​@@classicpianoacademygh3268Good stuff

"traditional diets" You need to look at their real diet "There are several reasons driving Africa’s increased appetite for wheat including urbanization, rising incomes, food aid, globalization in cuisine, and fluctuations in the relative price of other staple crops such as corn. Demand for wheat-based foods have reached all-time highs in many countries both on the household level-as sales of items like pasta increase in grocery stores-and on the restaurant level, as international restaurant chains continue to find big business in Africa." It's not that they rely on Ukraine wheat specifically, so let's put that aside. But in a global world, and why people use it, is because it's cheap. It's cheap for people in cities. To the point that the poorer you are, the more you'll be dependent on cheaper foods(though I don't know for sure, this is generally true).

It is just Nana clutching at straws!

Russian money paid to ruling politicians to speak Russia's language at the UN. That's all.

If the price of wheat increases so does that of any other food item. Simply put if grain is to expansive people are going to eat rice reducing demand for grain (but due to low supply, grain will still be expansive) and increasing demand (and thus price) of rice. Traditional diets might be a dominant factor in household spending, but if grain is way to expansive while rice is dirt cheap you can be sure everyone including people in Europe and the USA are munching rice. In the end the global market connects all prices in some way. And generally the more total food is available the cheaper the prices for food items are. And if there is less total food, it means prices of all food items go up. In the end the conflict does impact prices globally, but it's not Ukraine's fault but Russia's for very obvious reasons.

We're who we elect. Can we be wiser? Let's see. Just prayer won't cut it though....

Thank you that is our main problem

C.I.A. don't want a strong Black leader. Then or now.

Bro, the current govt in Ghana is a criminal syndicate.

What covid and Ukraine phenomena? These things should not be used as an excuse! People at the airport made personal fortunes out of the compulsory covid testing payments. The bulk of it did not go into government coffers but was trousered by officials. No paper trail....they put up notices banning filming inside the airport----they didn't want proof of their wrong-doing! Thieves everywhere in that country. Thieves and disgruntled workers who don't even get their wages----sometimes for months! Flooding from the Akosombo dam is a current example; it never happened in Nkrumah's time! Negligence has led to massive flooding, bringing destruction. Cholera and typhoid are likely to follow. Akuffo-Addo has been a disaster!

Tribalism is so deep in your blood. Speak against the government but to make it tribal issues shows your stupidity. Ghana has been saved from tribalism and unnecessary wars in Africal due to its cohesion and intermarriage. U and your kind here promoting tribalism. God will punish u if u dont stop this foolishness. God bless our homeland Ghana......

You are such fool for saying that...

@@kurtisbanner3965shut up hypocrite

pepenii/Trokosinii aboa

100% true!

It is. It's just that our leaders are not helping us. Sad

Ghana was a great place until criminals were installed into power.

Nope, not gonna happen. It was the direction Uhuru was heading us in but we have put on the breaks and are now even slightly ahead of our debt. The next 3 years will be tough but if we maintain it, we should be out of the woods then.

sure if borrowing 1.4T is being "put on breaks" just because things are tough doesn't mean we are not taking loans.@@njambizzy

Protests are guaranteed by the constitution of Ghana. The current president protested when he was in opposition! Today, Nana Addo doesn't want anybody in Ghana to protest! He is using all means to frustrate peaceful protesters!

Correct, corruption is an issue also in South Africa but unlike everywhere alse on the continent we have institutions and civil society that are robust. Our debt is mostly in local currency due to strong financial markets so we are not beholden to forex. Our economy is diversified so our challenges would would be quickly arrested once these thieving ANC aka liberation movement is kicked to the curve next year.

You could say all those things about the United States.

@@MrStCyrX ☺️

Kenya has not yet reached where Ghana is though

@@billjames1216…it’s coming in 2024. Does Kenya have $1.5 billion bond repayments due next year? People are saying only a miracle could save Kenya.

@@zerosumgame3722 😂😂😂1.5 billion dollars will be payed that is not enough to sink Kenya if u know Kenya's budget I don't know where u are from yourself

@@billjames1216 …that’s not what economists are saying. Every country budget has critical and non-critical expenditures. If your critical expenditures exceed revenue, it doesn’t matter how large your total budget is. Take the US for example where the debt exceeds GDP but the US can print money but Kenya cannot.

@@zerosumgame3722 1.5 billion dollars to sink Kenya???😂😂😂😂 That's laughable do u know how much Kenya has paid this year for it's loans alone 😂😂😂 probably that's an IMF loan kenya still pay Chinese and domestic loans and all the other loans that it has taken .Check your facts right and stop listening to street econmists

you have seen the light too, brother. Ghana's solution is right under the noses.

West African neighbors = Igbo Nigerian petty traders. I’m sure you need to go and read whatever you read that induced this false assertion again. Foreigners can always do business in Ghana, you just need a certain amount of capital. Foreigners cannot do petty trading, that’s a domain reserved for Ghanaians who cannot compete with big money. Besides, that law only works to attract the best of talents and ideas, not street hawkers and knick-knack vendors. We already have loads of them.

@@rigg13 I don't understand hoe some of you reason. Why would any African entity pay $1m to come to Ghana when there are other destinations? Also, if that GIPC law has actually worked, why is Ghana's economy in such a sorry state? Interest rate at nearly 40% Who would come there to invest with such prohibitive rates?

​@@rigg13 Then you call yourselves a pan African country. The gate way to Africa my foot. Ghana is a leeching country always trying to scam investors by lying about it business data(Redenominatiion, Year of return etc) 1 million dollars, employ 25 skilled workers, never trade in any commodity that the local ghanaian is trading on...This is wickedness, and wickedness begets wickedness. I can see why you guys exiled Nkwame Nkrumah and made him died in depression. Why ain't you attracting those foreign investors. Your year of return scam has fallen apart and the world is now aware it was all a ploy to steal from the African Amreicans. We Nigerian had known and advised our people earlier because you guys don't have the brains and capacity to accommodate the AAs. You gheneiens don't even have the market and the pending power for foreign investors to operate in your country. How many are you in that little Ghana and how much is the GDP of your major little cities? In spite of security concerns in Nigeeria, foreign investors are still coming to Nigeria. Big Music labels are here, Elon shut down the Twitter office in your little country and allowed the one in our Nigeria to run, Billgates was here some month back and even used a generator to have his business conference etc, as far as we have the market, they will keep on coming. @rigg13, now is the appropriate time to use that your trade laws to save your country from bankruptcy and pay off your loans. Fool.

@@enod9746 Well, on the contrary, i do understand how you reason. You would rather favor other destinations over investing in Ghana but we are the ones worthy of taking in your crop of uneducated petty trading citizens who half of the time move in bands of 4 where at least one of them is into something criminal? You aren’t very bright.

They don 't report to the people, do they?

@@CaptainTodger69 I'm not underestimating anything, I just don't believe that there's any African economy robust enough to temper those factors, and yes, Greece is a developed economy with a far more diversified economy, no matter how bad their debt gets they'll never struggle to get the basic necessities.

So who's duty is it? The white house😂😂😂

@@ricaard6959Greece economy collapse since…Greece is shown as the only exemple of the euro crisis and dont recovery till today Go tell it to the youth who flee out that country

Have you ever heard of bad loans; the IMF & World bank do things on purpose. I'm Kenyan and in a year or so the same is going to happen to our economy

​@@dante_1273 For the last time, the IMF and the World Bank are lenders of last resort! You're not supposed to borrow from them! You only do that when you've already exhausted all your options and have nowhere else to go due to mismanaging your economy. Who's going to give you a loan when your credit score is abysmally low and all you're riding on is sales of natural resources!?

Absolutely my thinking too!

Borrowing left, right and center

Actually it was a good idea. The mistake was not investing in infrastructure, while the perfect opportunity was there.

@@susuilu No it not,how many Ghanaian manufacturers can compete with Nigerian or Ethiopia manufacturers. Why do you think Nigeria produce the like of Dangote. Why the you think China,Korea and Japan refuses to increase the value of their currencies.

Skipping rice is good for your health😂. At least, you won't become diabetic😂

​@@andrewasibey371😂😂😂

This is what you will get when you have clueless people managing a whole country like Ghana! Corruption everywhere!

​@@andrewasibey371🤦‍♀️.

Eat gari!

It is beyond crisis. In fact this is the first time in Ghana's history that it has defaulted on its sovereign debt! Clueless people in charge of Ghana now! Even poor pensioners have been forced to forgo part of their investments in government bonds!

@@KofiGreat-hb3oi Hmmm

heh. kumbe sikuwa nafikiria hivi pekee yangu...if we are not careful...hapa ndio tutajipata

Falsehood with such a monumental level of corruption 😢

Deluded opinion sighted.

It doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's manifest only by planning.

Kwasia

@@joylm9108 ony3 soor mi.

Do it yourself!!!

You have got to be kidding me...Social Media will develop the country?? 😂

@@theinternetsavedmylife Go read it my post again.

@@theinternetsavedmylife You underestimate the power of the creator economy. South Korea's biggest export is their pop culture. Social media, art and remote labor can be encouraged as a supporting "export" for the economy

@@theinternetsavedmylife lol its funny even your username agrees with this point

​@@kingsleyoseiabrah1this is neither factually true or even makes sense. Skorea biggest exports are electronics

not realy, you just dont like that your favourite guy lost the elcetion move on

​@@drugoviicif you can't make a point beyond politics and the last election shows your the one who needs moving on

​@@nicholasthiongoUDA wanadhani elections ndio maendeleo hakuna mtu anakula elections

Fake hype don't change reality on ground

😂😂

@@hybridw1vision675 hmm

😂😂😂😂😂

To create a burden for myself in aborokyire? You're a joker!😅

@@barbudo12 oh don’t say that

Dumb advice. You don't take a loan and say you're going to stop paying it back. That becomes theft.

@@tvs9978 it don't matter that's what they should do stop paying

Or don't take loans. Has that ever crossed your mind? No one is forcing you to take loans 😂

@@theinternetsavedmylife well they should not pay they were forced loans and some were given to buy back land the colonizers stole that they didn't own in the first place so we should not pay

There is no news channel that doesn't show 90% negative news.

You are complaining because the negative is on Ghana. If it were in Nigeria, you would have been hailing and praising the BBC for being truthful. Thank you BBC for giving us the truth

Fake hype don't change reality on ground

The hype died lol ,Ghana gov need to pay for another hype ,