Maybe Ghana’s persistent struggle with ballooning public debt and excessive government spending will finally become a thing of the past if the government resets the country to adopt the decentralized system of administration. This is the observation of Dr. Tom Asiseh, an independent presidential aspirant.
In his thought-provoking article “Beware of Political Smokescreen,” Dr. Asiseh argues that Ghana’s over-centralized governance structure has bred inefficiency, waste, and dependency on the central government for development.
The member of the Ghana Diaspora Movement insists that a “reset system” rooted in true decentralization could not only restore fiscal discipline but also trigger a new wave of regional growth and innovation.
With true decentralization, every region would have the privilege and opportunity to utilize its own resources and create jobs. Such a system, he is convinced, would help discourage excessive government borrowing and spending.
“The reset system, through this, gives the government back to the people. Every region would have the privilege and opportunity to utilize its own resources and create jobs, then develop its region without being marginalized and waiting for decades for progress to reach its turn.,” he noted.
At the heart of his claim is the idea that when regions are empowered to harness and manage their own natural and human resources, the pressure on the central government to fund every project and bailout struggling districts would drastically reduce. This, he says, would end the cycle of reckless spending and foreign borrowing that has trapped Ghana in decades of debt.
Ghana’s debt-to-GDP ratio was over 80% in 2022, contributing to the economic crisis that necessitated the IMF bailout program. Currently, through the policing of the IMF, the debt stands around 40& of GDP. It is interesting to note that a large chunk of the national budget goes into interest payments, leaving little room for development.
Much of this borrowing, experts say, is due to the centralized development model, where every major decision and project, from road construction to school infrastructure, depends on the Central Government’s approval and funding.
Given this challenge, Dr. Asiseh envisions a Ghana where regions act as engines of self-driven development, each contributing its fair share to the national purse. Under his “reset system,” a percentage of revenue generated from regional economic activities would flow to the central government to finance national projects, ensuring a steady and sustainable stream of funds.
“It is evident that the reset system through decentralization is the solution to Ghana’s problem. The reset system would help the central government gain continuous funds into the coffers, a percentage accrued from the proceeds of the utilized resources by the sixteen regions to run the government’s major projects. Such a system would help discourage excessive government borrowing and spending,” Dr. Asiseh observed.
To him, this is how we build a country that funds itself. The central government, he says, gains continuous funds from the proceeds of the regions, instead of depending on loans.
Dr. Asiseh’s proposal resonates with many development economists who have long argued that Ghana’s fiscal woes are tied to limited regional autonomy. With most resources managed centrally, regions often remain idle, waiting for “their turn” for development projects.
Dr. Asiseh believes decentralization would break this dependency, encouraging healthy competition among regions to attract investors, create jobs, and boost productivity.
He further notes that a truly decentralized system would also draw Ghanaians in the diaspora back into regional development initiatives. He is convinced that Ghanaians abroad would be spurred to join the process in their regions and also attract foreign investors “to willfully invest in the regions they deem favourable.”
This, he adds, would save government officials the frequent global trips to solicit what he describes as “spilled-over dollars.”
However, critics of this approach to development will result in unbalanced development since some regions are not heavily endowed with significant resources. The says it will widen the already existing regional development disparities.
