The World Bank has hailed Ghana’s economic growth for 2017, describing it as “positive”.
The World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, Mr Henry Kerali, has said the country’s impressive growth was due to good microeconomic policy management and economic stabilisation as well as improvement in physical balances.
He made the comments at a recent stakeholder forum organised by the American Chamber of Commerce, Ghana on the topic “Ghana’s Economy Moving from Stabilization to Growth”.
Mr Kerali said Ghana’s inflation rate was close to the central bank’s target of 8 percent and that average lending rate has also come down.
He said although Ghana recorded one of its biggest drops in the latest World Bank Ease of Doing Business Report – from 108 in 2017 to 120 in 2018 – it still did better than other giants in the West Africa sub-region.
Despite the drop, Ghana still took the top spot as the best place for doing business in sub-region, beating Ivory Coast, Senegal, The Gambia, and the biggest economy, Nigeria.
The World Bank Business Report provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the sub-national and regional level.
It assesses the countries based on 11 indicators such as starting a business, access to a credit facility, registering a property, access to electricity, paying taxes, protecting minority investors, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
Chairman of Ismael Yamson and Associates, Dr Ishmael Yamson, who also spoke at the forum said the government must not only focus on “Ghana beyond Aid” but also “Ghana beyond Debt” since the country’s debt keeps increasing.
He said there was the need to create avenues to generate money for the country for developmental projects.
He expressed concern about the way corruption had been institutionalised and called on institutions to be proactive and address the menace.
Ms Ayesha Bedwei, Tax Partner at PWC Ghana, said the country is faced with a general problem of indiscipline – tax evasion, corruption and lawlessness – in a way that stifles development.
She called on authorities to sanction individuals who flout the laws to serve as a deterrent to potential offenders.
World Bank commends Ghana’s ‘positive’ economic growth
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