A former Chief Economist of the Bank of Ghana has stated that Ghana’s lack of an economic development plan makes it impossible to gauge whatever progress the country has made to attain self-reliance.

Dr A. O. Abudu said politicians over the decades, have solely relied on their manifestoes to implement a “shopping list of items” under the guise of developing the country, but in no meaningful context.

He said such out-of-context development projects, have significantly obscured what the end-game of the country is and has created a disconnect between the aspirations of citizens and the government.

Speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show, Dr Abudu said, “We don’t have any economic development plan so that the politicians and us, the citizens, know exactly where we are all heading, what our responsibilities are because government alone cannot do everything.

“Everybody must chip in; we’re all trying to help to move this country forward. So if we don’t have an economic development plan, and planning is based upon, say shopping list of items taken from party manifestoes and all that, that is not planning. It’s not planning.”
He stated that even though these ‘shopping list of items’ were beneficial for the purposes they were made, it is essential that they fit into a bigger picture, an economic development plan.

“You see these little things, the few projects they’re good, we appreciate them and all that, but they must be tied together within a plan,” he said.

According to him, an economic development plan would ensure the continuation of developmental projects in successive governments and further develop the country’s human resource.

“So if you plan properly, it means to say that we have a national economic plan, we also have a plan for human resource development, because the population is growing, doubling every 25 years. We must plan for all these.
“It’s almost like a baton race, the government does a certain portion and hands over the baton to the next government and so forth, but there must be some central theme running through all these.“

However, currently, the former Chief Economist liked the country’s development to a commercial bus.

“The driver is driving, the driver knows where he’s going, but the passengers don’t know where they’re going.”