While many Ghanaians are struggling to survive and make ends meet in the face of rising cost of living amid stagnated wages, Economist at the University of Ghana, Prof. Godfred Alufar Bokpin has revealed that some powerful institutions in the country are creating an economy of their own to protect themselves from the harmful implications of Ghana’s current economy,
Prof. Bokpin says powerful state institutions with financial muscles including the Bank of Ghana for the past three years are creating a different economy of their own to insulate them from the hardships in the country.
The latest Afrobarometer report revealed that 9 out of 10 Ghanaians believe that the economy is heading in the wrong direction. This indicates that 90% of Ghanaians are of the view that the economy is in tatters and harmful to survival.
This perception of Ghanaians signifies that they have lost confidence in the economy hence forcing many people and institutions to find either fair or foul means to absolve themselves from the hardship.
The Economics and Finance Professor says religiously insulating themselves are the Bank of Ghana and other powerful institutions in the country. He explains that for the past years, staff of these institutions have been offering themselves salaries, allowances, and perks that will enable them to insulate themselves from the impact of the general economy.
This, Prof. Bopkin explains as amounting to creating an independent economy outside the general economy.
“Go and check, in the last three and half years, there are powerful institutions in this country including the Bank of Ghana, that are actively and consciously building their own economy independent of the general economy,” Prof. Bokpin said in an interview monitored by The High Street Journal.
He explained, “so if you look at salary adjustment, if you look at allowances and all that, you can see that clearly institutions that have the economic fundamentals, that have the resources are actually insulating themselves from the harmful general economy. That is what they are doing. If you look at salary adjustments across certain state institutions, allowances, and salary structures, clearly this is an economy within an economy.”
Such a practice by powerful state institutions feeds into the growing disparities and inequalities bemoaned by the Institute of Economic, Social, and Statistical Research (USSER). It is therefore imperative for the government to clamp down on this practice and prioritize income redistribution policies.
