What business community expects from President Mahama

Some Ghanaians interviewed by Economy Times expect President John Dramani Mahama to stay focused and keep an eye on the country’s ailing economy.

“Public Relations and propaganda does not provide jobs. It does not put food on the table. It certainly does not pay for rent, health care, school fees and does not resolve the challenges faced by the Ghana Cedi,” Elorm Israel Dzokoto, a Senior Revenue Officer of Ghana Revenue Authority has said.

He continued: “The truth is that the NDC team has failed to improve on the lots of Ghanaians and rather engaged in propaganda. And these failures cannot be resolved by PR gimmicks like they have continued
to deploy since the birth of this administration.”

Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, Chairman of Databank also charged President John Dramani Mahama to inject vigour into the country stunned by the recent demise of former President Evans Atta Mills, which occurred against a backdrop of mounting economic pressures.

“It will be asking too much of the president, who just assumed office barely five months to general elections, to introduce new measures into the management of the economy.

“We however expect his youthful vitality to be brought to bear on the implementation of current policies, if the country is to come close to the realization of government’s economic targets for 2012,” Ofori-Atta told Economy Times.

Government’s set target of single digit inflation is almost certain to be undermined by the consistently weakening cedi, which since January has slipped by more than 17 percent to the US dollar

The cedi’s depreciation has been cited as the major factor accounting for the jump in the annual producer price inflation to 19.1 percent in June, from May’s 18.01 which was subsequently revised downward to 16.6 percent, according to official statistics released by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) last week.

The June producer price index (PPI), the highest in the past nine months, is due in part to manufacturers having to pay more for imported raw materials due to the plunge the cedi this year.

Persistent high production costs are expected to translate into higher prices of manufactured items for consumers over coming months, thereby exerting upward pressures on the consumer price index (CPI)

Most analysts now worry about the economy, though growth is still expected to be robust with GDP projected at 8.5 percent on the back of continued contribution of the oil, gas and mining sectors.

Databank forecasts certain economic indicators, such as inflation rate, trending upward from the end of 2011 figure of 8.6 percent on year-on-year basis, and though not at an alarming rate, it is still expected to end 2012 in double digits, breaching government’s single digit expectation.

Also, despite Bank of Ghana’s recent measures to eliminate speculative transactions in the local currency, Databank expects the cedi to continue softening and bracing the psychological 2:1 cedi/dollar ratio.

President John Mahama himself, last Wednesday, acknowledged the need to vigorously continue with former President Mills’ Better Ghana Agenda to ensure a vibrant and stable country.

Most observers however, expect that commitment to be more on the political front than the economic.

“Don’t forget as Vice President, Mr. Mahama was the head of the economic management team and he would already have been implementing policies to the best of his ability,” Ofori-Atta said pointing out that Mr. Mahama would be confronted with daunting political challenges that require his undivided attention and which is made even more daunting by the limited time at his disposal.

The pressing political demands notwithstanding, President Mahama must have an eye on the economy, since with the demise of President Mills, the NDC campaign strategy of discussing the characters of the two leading protagonists ceases to be an issue and more attention would be reverted to the economy.

Any further deterioration of the economy could prove fatal to Mr. Mahama and the NDC’s chances of retaining power since the opposition NPP had already been seeking to make the December elections more of a referendum on the NDC’s economic performance during the Mills/Mahama tenure.