Ghana: Refreshing Words From the Deputy Minister of Finance but Where Will That Take Us?

28 October 2011
opinion

One of the most refreshing speeches ever made this year is certainly the one delivered by the Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Enoch Cobbinah, on behalf of Mr. Seth Terkpeh, a Deputy Minister of Finance, at the launch of the 7th Ghana Extractive Industries Initiative audit report in Accra this week.

In a rather candid manner the Deputy Minister admitted a litany of failures by successive governments to seek the best for Ghanaians in the exploitation of the country's natural resources. He admitted that, "Our country has failed to translate its mineral wealth into broad economic development. Transfers from the sector to the economy as a whole have been particularly disappointing because of several factors, including our inability to operationalise the Minerals and Mining Act to our advantage, by accepting the lower end of the 3-6% range over the years, provision of generous tax incentives, carry forward of losses, accelerated depreciation etc."

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