Accra — In the second part of his interview with allAfrica.com correspondent Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, Ghana's president-elect John Agyekum Kufuor promises he will develop efficient, transparent economic management. Contrasting his plans with the practices of the outgoing Rawlings' administration Kufuor says he will pay more than what he calls "lip service" to private sector needs and allow it to grow. Ghanaians, he warns, will have to prepare to tighten their belts.
Q: Mr Kufuor, campaign pledges and campaign promises are probably quite easy to make..... But now that the election is over, as president elect, do you think you can deliver on your promises? And what are the priorities? Ghanaians talk about education, they talk about health and, of course, the economy. What do you think Ghanaians are going to say after the symbolic 100 days, when you haven't been able to deal with all those problems? Do you think that the good will will disappear?
A: Ghanaians are not as simple as the question would assume. I am sure there is nobody that would expect that, within a hundred days, anybody, however good would be able to turn the situation around. So, all the problems of economy, of social services and so on and so forth would be solved. What I would expect the Ghanaians to expect of a new government is the initial policies, the nature of them, and how well thought out and focused on problems, how they stand. And once you begin to take the right steps initially, I would expect the Ghanaian populace to begin to see that you are moving in the right direction, so they would come along with you. That is what I want to within the first hundred days.
Q: Do you foresee a period of austerity for Ghana?
A: Naturally, because where you are talking of stabilizing the currency, for instance, you would necessarily be talking about the public sector disciplining itself, cutting down on borrowing, balancing its budget, bringing down inflation and interest rates and things like that. These are difficult under any circumstances. So, we might experience some austerity. But that s the way to restore health in the body politic, so we would do it.
But, at every stage we would use transparency, we would try to explain things to the people, to carry the people along with us. So, even when there is austerity, because they have been shown the way out of the bind of problems, they would be tolerant and continue to support us.
Q: Are you warning Ghanaians then to brace themselves, to tighten their belts?
A: Yes, yes, yes! Yes, we'll tell the problems to them and also tell the solutions we are trying to usher in. And, on that basis, when you tell people to brace themselves or tighten belts, they will understand, I m sure.
Q: Will you be counting on the support of the donor community to help Ghana through this period of austerity?
A: Very much so. Because I do not doubt that the donor community always meant well in helping Ghana. Since we are going to be disciplined as a government, we would be taking the right policies which would be there for all to see and to appreciate, I would expect the genuine friends of Ghana to give us the support and encouragement.
Q: Does that mean the donors giving money?
A: It must be part of it. Not just money, technical advice and whatever support would come along.
Q: In return for that, you are going to have, perhaps, to take some very tough decisions in the very near future, such as deregulating fuel prices, electricity prices etc.?
A: I believe the deregulation of utilities and petroleum products, I thought according to the incumbent government, was already in place. But the current government has been so opaque, so unforthcoming in the matter of fixing of prices of these basics that one doesn't know whether government has done the right things all along. So, we would want to go in and look at the price structures, how government came by them and we would want to know whether the prices do not contain conventions for wasteful companies and institutions like the GNPC (Ghana National Petroleum Corporation) and so forth.
So, we will look at the structures and, if we find there are any cuts we have to do, so as to alleviate some of the hardships of the consumers, we won t hesitate at all to cut them out. But if we should find that everything in there has been put there economically, then we will tell the people that this is a burden the consumer must bear and so it must be.
Q: Are you ready to be tough, are you ready to be unpopular, are you ready for fuel prices to rise, are you ready for Ghanaians to demonstrate against you?
A: I am ready to be efficient, to turn the economic and social tables, which have been to say the least stagnant over so many years, around, positively so as to get the economy and society moving progressively into advancement. I am ready to do this and, if it would mean my being unpopular, it s just unfortunate. I m ready to be very tough, but tough for a purpose, for an objective. I would be focused on getting everything moving in the right direction for Ghana as quickly as possible.
Q: In the four year term you have, how are you going to set about trying to make Ghana less susceptible to external shocks, such as the collapse in prices for cocoa and gold and the rise in oil?
A: Definitely, protection is not going to be part of our scheme of doing things. No. We would rather broaden the base of production and try to enlarge the market within which Ghana would earn hard currencies to give us the insulation against external shocks, because this is really the problem. Because the economic production base is so narrow and fragile, the slightest upheaval in the petroleum or whatever sector outside comes back with a bang on the economy.
We are heavily import-dependent in Ghana. So, when my government talks of enabling the private sector to assume the leading role and restoring the economy, we would mean it. We would encourage the private sector to get more efficient, get more competitive in the market so as to earn more for Ghana. This would mean encouraging manufacturing, more of the service industries, more modern and efficient agriculture.
Q: So will agriculture be one of the main thrusts of the next four years?
A: We have got the basics. Ghana has so much advantage on the agricultural front; good lands, good watercourses and the people are willing to do the work. What is left is good policies by government to support the farmers; modernize agriculture using irrigation, mechanization, giving access to credit to the farmers and helping the farmers use extension advice, I am sure within a short time Ghana will be able to feed itself and export to earn hard currency through the agricultural front.
It also provides a lot of employment. About sixty percent of the workforce depend on agriculture, so agriculture is very very relevant.
Q: What was it, in your opinion, about the Rawlings' government that meant it didn't achieve these things?
A: To be candid, I don't think this government had any serious policy, well thought through policies on the agricultural front. So, in consequence, our agriculture virtually collapsed.
Q: And, in general, why didn't the Rawlings' period see Ghana take off economically in a more dramatic fashion?
A: The regime didn't move into the economic recovery programme that was advised by the multilaterals voluntarily. The regime moved in conveniently to get help from the multilaterals and the donors. If the regime had not accepted the conditions of the multilaterals, there was no way it was going to get all the help that came its way and, within the past ten or fifteen years, the regime came by as much as US$12 billion, because somehow it managed to convince the world that it was cooperating with the multilaterals.
This regime was a regime that started off with extreme leftist tendencies. It didn't believe in the private sector being the engine of growth. Unfortunately for it too, with hindsight, it didn't manage the public sector efficiently. It allowed corruption to seep into government and there was a lot of waste.
Given any year during the tenure, if you looked at the auditor-general s report, you would see that waste and corruption alone absorbed something like a third of all the outlays government made, whilst at the same time the private sector that could have broadened the base of earnings, especially export earnings, hard currency earnings, was undermined.
Government introduced liberalization without any planning whatsoever. So, within a short time, Ghana found that more efficient supplies of the needs of the nation, from outside, were dumping their wares on the country and the local industries and producers just couldn't t keep up with the competition from outside.
They began to collapse, say with the textile industry for instance. So now, when you drive around the industrial areas in Accra, you will see that the factories are more like shells. They are used as depots to import food and textiles from China, Taiwan and Thailand and places like that. They are not used to run machines to produce.
Q: But I suppose the government of President Rawlings, and it has done, points its fingers back to the time when you were in government in the late 60s and early 70s, and says the rot started then, your government mismanaged, the Busia government of that time mismanaged the economy and that's where the trouble started.
A: The Busia government lasted only two years three months, starting from 1969 and being overthrown January 1972. Rawlings governments, PNDC (editorial note: the Provisional National Defense Council set up immediately following Rawlings' coup d'etat of December 31, 1981) and NDC (outgoing National Democratic Congress), have had twenty long years, starting from 1982 continuously till now, 2000. If this new government, incumbent government, has any policies to stem what it called rot, it should have been able to do it. Twenty years is enough for any government anywhere.
So, if at the end of the 20 years, this government is having to point accusing fingers at a government that existed -- is it 40 years ago -- then it s admitting to its incompetence. It just failed. In any case, Busia's government was not as rotten as Rawlings tries to make it out. Busia s government of three years two months left a legacy of the period of highest economic growth in Ghana s history since independence.
During those three years, rate of growth averaged 6.7 percent, in terms of gross domestic product. And if you go to the central bank of Ghana now, to check the figures, you d see that it was the period of highest economic growth in the history of Ghana.
Such a government couldn t have been as bad as Rawlings would make us seem. I tend sometimes to suspect that Rawlings and his government suffer from a hangover of ideological narrow mindedness and also sentimental hate for Busia s regime. Busia s regime, I was part of it, and I tell you it was perhaps the best government Ghana has had to date.
Q: At the end of your four years, do you expect that you will have been able to put more money in the pockets of Ghanaians, and will the coins in their pockets be worth more than they are now?
A: Yes. I have said it, and I want to repeat here, that the centerpiece in my manifesto, and it s there in black and white, is wealth creation. So, I'm going to work to generate wealth and this we'll do by encouraging the private sector in the first instance, to broaden the base of production to get more competitive, on the global market, not just for our little market here because we want efficiency to be the order of the day.
Government would assist Ghanaian entrepreneurs to partner worthy venturers from outside, venturers who would bring in not just capital and know how, but also markets so that Ghana becomes like a production pad for international markets for whatever and government will give all the incentives. We want to make Ghana so investment attractive that investors will begin to look here.
With that, I believe there would be employment and more money coming Ghana s way to distribute through better wages and remunerations for the people. We want to increase the per capita income, which stands at US$370 now, by the time my term would be up, to something like over US$1000. And further, we would have laid the foundations so well that, whoever takes over from me with even average management of the economy should be able to add to the returns for the people.
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Q: Is that in 4 or 8 years?
A: Four to eight years. Whenever I go. Whenever I leave the scene, I want to leave a positive sort of balance, credit for people to build on.
Q: Now that sounds grand, but what about Adwoa and Kojo average? Poverty in Ghana is estimated at 40 percent. How far do you think you will be able to reduce that figure?
A: When you talk of gainful employment for the people, when you talk of broadening the pace of production, you are talking of creating jobs. That s where the Adwoas and Kojos will also be taken care of. They will be earning and I say I want the per capita income, which is the average, to move up. And when it moves up, it moves up I believe for the Kojos and the Adwoas across the board everywhere.
This is the grand design we have and I tell you it's still very practical, because what has been the trouble has been the subversion of the private sector during Rawlings era. For 20 years, the private sector has not been given a chance to grow under Rawlings. We want to reverse this and reverse it radically. We do not suffer from any ideological hiccups, I and my government. We are not coming in with any fancy ideologies. We are open, we are liberal and we are not ashamed to say engendering wealth is the centerpiece.
So we believe we are going to be the most business friendly government the nation has had to date. That will help. And government will go all out with appropriate policies to help the farmers, help the manufacturing sector and business people generally.
The important thing is to show us that your feasibility studies are workable and good, and that supporting you would be gameful for the state. My government will come out and help you.
Q: Bottom line though, your policies don't appear to differ much from those of Rawlings' outgoing government...
A: What I ve said so far should show you that we are radically different. These people paid lip service to the private sector and I' m telling you, it won t be lip service with us, it will be real support for the private sector, that s different. That is a very very different approach.
The outgoing government has allowed the currency to plummet, right now it's only a shadow of itself. When this government came in, when the incumbent came in, the cedi exchanged with the dollar at 2 cedis for 1 dollar around 1982. Government is going out with the exchange rate standing at 7000 cedis to 1 dollar. They've collapsed the system altogether.
They haven't added to the production base. Ghana is still heavily dependent on cocoa, the raw materials, cocoa, gold and timber. I am saying we are going to move away to support manufacturing, to support modernization, to be part of the global market where competition should be the order of the day. We are going in to support the private sector. This is not what the outgoing government has done. So, we are very different policy-wise.
