Africa should move away from aid to trade

Let’s move from aid to trade-Databank
By Isabella Gyau Orhin

The Executive Director of the Databank Financial Services (DFS) Yoofi Grant has said Ghana should move away from aid dependence as the economy of the county has stabilized.
He said the focus should now be on trade and not aid adding that Ghana and Africa should re-engineer themselves to benefit from its share of the world trade.
Speaking at a meeting last Tuesday with a group of European journalists touring the country with sponsorship from the World Bank, Grant said the economy of Ghana should be free from donor ties especially the Bretton Woods Institutions.
“Commodity prices over the last three years have been favourable to Africa and Ghana,” he said.
Ghana’s two major exports cocoa and gold are doing well on the world market with gold selling at over 6oo dollars an ounce.
According to him, Ghana for instance is now an emerging market with many success stories and a stock exchange market that is improving drastically and making waves both home and abroad.
“We are as successful in the same scale as other markets in Europe.”
He said Africa could have attracted more investment but for negative media reports.
According to the World trade Organisation, Africa’s trade is about two percent of world trade.
According to him, in spite of the many success stories of Africa’s business environment, the western media had chosen to focus on warring countries painting Africa as an unsafe place to do business.
“Africa is actually a yield game, the yield in Africa is good,” he explained.
He said it is about time the western countries turn their attention to Africa to observe the reality on the ground as against what they see on their television screens.
Mr. Yoofi said organizations like the World Bank unfortunately have been drawn into the image issue. He said the World Bank patronises whatever is espoused by the western media creating the impression that corruption exists only in African countries.
Grant was of the opinion that until Africa addresses the issue of negative media reportage by the western media; the continent is not going to get its fair share of foreign Direct Investments.

Supporting, Grant, the Chief Executive Officer of the SOFTtribe an Information Communication technology Company Herman Chinery-Hesse said disenfranchising local businesses have been part of the agenda of donors who give aid to the country.
He said when there is an influx of foreign goods on the market, local competitors are affected.
He also complained that, indigenous entrepreneurs voices do not reach very far since government is arm twisted by donors in exchange for aid.
“Donors make governments make weird decisions that weaken local businesses,” he said.

Other private sector representatives who met with the European journalists were worried about the influx of cheap goods from China and cited the visit of the Chinese Premier
Mr. Wen Jiabao, and the aid of about US$66million to fund its developmental projects such as the construction of a 17.4 kilometre road which costs 28 million dollars
They said all were attempts to strengthen the dumping currently going on.
The Vice president of the Ghana Institution of Engineers also said a lot of contracts especially those sponsored by donors are awarded to foreign contractors and consultants.
According to him, such foreigners usually bring a lot of workers from their home countries denying Ghanaians the opportunity of gaining employment.
“Such projects should come with a lot of Ghanaian participation and until the Ghanaian component is increased, the problem will persist,” he said.
Ghana’s economy is said to have stabilized with inflation dropping from about 40 percent in 2002 to a single digit in April May 2006, rising slightly top about 10 percent in recent times.
Some 40 percent o f Ghana’s annual budget comes from donor sources and this according to experts have weakened the countries negotiation skills with donors on conditionalties such as privatization of State Owned Enterprises and other social services.
For instance, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has announced its intention to charge consumers for the full cost of electricity and water supplies.
These two have hitherto been subsidized by government.

The Pertoleum sector has also been deregulated and subsidies withdrawn as part of the promptings of the Bretton Woods institutions.
According to an Economist Nii Ampah Sowa, the Ghanaian economy continues to remain stable in spite upward trend of the crude oil prices.
Ghana’s relationship with donors such as the World Bank dates as far back as the first republic when the head of state contracted a loan to build the Akosombo dam.
Ghana is expected to gain about 4.2 billion dollars in debt relief from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
But this according to experts are not free but come with conditions.