Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta talks to Bernard Avle about Ghana's economy and how to grow it

Yoji issues as well what's your general view about the CDs behavior in the past couple of money in not in relation to all that is happening yeah I suspect the fire the past the past month or so Bernard inquired historic I'm not sure with experience this type of variations of CD depreciate name CD appreciating so clearly there's some element that has entered you know into that because generally the first quarter of each year you have these pressures of you know importers making making good the payments they have to make dividends coming to you interest payments being repatriated as a traffic this time around in addition to that was this uncertainty about why Ghana would be as we exit the IMF and investors and lack of certainty about what to do that coupled with the push to conclude the I am a program well you know I didn't let you to these but as I explained about three weeks ago we're pretty comfortable with the reserves that I expected which was some two hundred million from cocoa board and under six hundred expected with the bridge of five hundred million dollars or so and then as you know we were very successful of the Europe and so for the first time I think we have about five months of import cover somewhere north of nine billion dollars so at that point I think you've created you should have created the type of stability that is required know and so we need to really determine what the nervousness is about that leading to that but we are setting up a committee and to really fundamentally look at the foreign exchange regime to see how we can sort of take out the noises people feel that so long as we import food or we have net imports of foods and so long as we are net importers of energy so long as we are net importers of high-value items around our exchange rate would or our local fiat currency would keep depreciating very very true and so I mean after I sat at that table and I say okay so we can be very prescriptive about intervening or not intervening but really the structure of our current account you know it's not sustainable that is no way we want to be you know so structurally I had we become an impossible situation economy one export-driven economy and that really Banaras is the goal that we must adhere to so for example i think we have about 2.4 billion the lots of imports of food yes now that cannot be you know we can continue that a billion dollars out of rice we should be able to the four hundred million dollars of poetry you know that can be so the strategy now is to all of this talk and vision on the gonna be on aid its how do you take these basic elements that we know we need you know and drive down or targets so poetry you are cutting it down I think it's about 350 million whole birds that we import a year okay and I think maybe the capacity in Ghana now is about two million you know so what do you put in place in the next five years you know such that your inputs are not going to be 75 million or whatever but at the same time the the poetry market internationally you know the EU is subsidizing about billion dollars a day for agriculture products okay and then they are stocking up then also the white meat part of poetry it's what they like okay so that's higher price for them which means the ones we like the thighs and co they can sell for less nothing so you're going to compete in a way in which I don't think you're ever going to be able to achieve price parity but then we as a nation should then be clear how much you want to pay for chicken and we have to have a broad consensus on driving towards that then you also begin to look at rice and say a billion dollars of rice certainly you know if I put 300 or million into rice production nationally we can drive down that price so I think it's the sort of deliberate structural issues that now are Greek and n-terminus to your group yeah but some people feel you blow hot and cold as the government's on this because yes you are right on the a Greek Minister side maize has done well and rice is toward as this year we will reduce imports by 50 percent and clearly planting for food and jobs is achieving something but when we look at all the decisions you take out the ports we got an impression you are very beholding to importer so if your first budget you removed coton could nuisance taxes a lot of which was at the behest of importance and other people now you've recalculated the valuation for imports near because you feel our port is not competitive enough can you explain why this does not contradict the import substitution export strategy you are talking about nothing it's it's you know we are going through you know sort of structural changes in how we look at things and so for example if you look at at revenues we've moved revenues from thirtysomething or DeLeon to close to 60 that is a 90% increase true we have not been meeting I will be missing our revenue targets by 5 odd percent also each year but you know this is 90 percent increase over 2 or 2 years so at the same time expenditures of course have not gonna buy that March is one of our 50 went over 72 so that's about 41% odd increase in them so that's one then you look at the issue of the ports and if your ports uncompetitive they are uncompetitive you know forget about importers or being beholden to importers and now fundamentally Bernard when I reduce rates at the ports or the benchmarking as we are talking about it what am i doing yes I am reducing for importers I'm also introducing for capita equipment that is coming in raw materials that are coming in which is to serve the needs of our manufacturers you know so it's not necessarily counterintuitive now the the the the ridiculous thing that that we have experienced these past two years is to see you know aloma port increase by almost a hundred percent in terms of container delivery and ghana's by about four percent and we know that somehow because we are less than vigilant on our borders this is coming back through so that is revenue that we are you know losing that we shouldn't lose I think my expectation is that we will claw back you know this misdirection of of our containers back through our port so that our revenues come back it's always counterintuitive when one is reducing rates and because you wonder whether the supply response will happen and I believe strongly the we'll be able to do that well but a couple of points this yes I understand the issue of a competitive of the port and I understand what you said when you see by reducing some of those charges then you're going to increase volumes and therefore you can increase more revenue but but two things there why aren't we applying this to just manufacturing Goods and components for our industrialization that's point one and point two if you apply this to consumables how sure are you that the importers who even pass on the reduced cost of the import to consumers do can I point out with you right the others will help importers make more margins and the people who go and buy the their hair week and all those things to be the same thing because they put this I just became more money so I go to ensure the follow through and why not restrict this to goods that are intermediate and not finish good and two things I mean one you once we get more competitive my expectation is that our manufacturers and we'll also begin to get more competitive and I mean that the benefits of competition anybody can always you know challenge that what is happen or what does not happen and we believe that the supply response will always move towards a pricing and that is more conducive to to the consumer so that that the type of risk that we would take you know as a right to send the party saying that look if the city is competitive soon the best will come to the top and those who can't compete with what would fall of the scale yes finally on this point my guess is kind of my issue though is that you know so we come back to and as this reflected by pocket yes again yes and and those items that the average person uses and attitudes not changes happen and so I need to find a way to make sure that I don't have imported inflation and that the rice that is eating is not as expensive as we go through our own production cycle okay a lot of people reported initially that government had reduced import taxes or info tariffs by 50 and 30 percent but upon reflection based on what dr. Bonilla said it's a reduction in the benchmark value of the imported item could you be so kind to explain the difference well I'm you know we have import duties of CET etc etc so really it's not touching that and what we have as we have benchmarking you know so we go through some analysis and we say that well the price of this good or commodity is $10,000 as a try Osetra and then the import duties you know then reflected on that and so what we are saying is that these benchmarking prices should be halved it wasn't okay such that the your import duties as they are reflect that Bernard you also know that we have been very compliant with issues of CET etc across the echo s region and some countries have not and so we really don't want to disadvantage people because we are implementing the CET so it's a minute to a tie I mean to - or not to bring you technical media trends or just go on with the interview so I guess it's kind of fret I don't always get the finance when it's tight here so could you for now I'll just say let's just flew the interview we'll bring you the tip later but let me recognize that dichotomy deterrence is sponsored by al Teague and Standard Chartered and it's nice to know that some essential things don't expire like honey salt and sugar now you can add data to that list and adult Eagles big-time late abandon doesn't expire so you get more and keep it for as long as you want doused our triple 1 hash to enjoy data that doesn't expire and it also brought to you by SC Astana Chartered Bank we believe in you and in your part of your dreams in the fire in your sue and the chef force of your will you have what it takes to make great things happen and nothing should stop you from living your best life least of all your banking with SC Mobile from Standard Chartered you can conduct all your banking from wherever you are as well as enjoy all the amazed place that come with this exciting new app download SC mobile from the App Store or plea store and let's show you what real convenience is and standard charted here for good alright I'm gonna read some of your comments shortly we have a few more minutes within maybe half an hour and I'll take some calls as well but I need to run through a couple more quick points then there are two issues people say we are boring too much and although you and dr. Bachman have explained that the rate of debt accumulation is low if you've explained that you said that the relaxation is lower our primary balance is positive we are making more from taxes and not spending too much so if you don't add that to that balance it's positive means that better in terms of the debt side there are two concerns last week the Connelly Commission for Africa released a report and the report identified 11 countries in high risk of debt default and in a very unflattering list of countries they listed Ghana in addition to people countries are really booty and things I'm not sure if you've seen the report and I have is 180 pages also is essentially saying that and this was in 2018 they thought they were using then listed us as one of the countries at high risk of debt default have you seen that report and how does that resonate with what you've been telling us about the economic trajectory that we our own yeah no I have not seen a report and I like to like to read it I mean high risk sort of moves you into you know north of 65% 70% of debt to GDP and as you know we are we are nowhere near that so it will be instructive to to read that and and and send a response to that so really I I you know have to look at that but I mean I think the issue of debt is important and how you manage that and and the core question really is that sustainability you know are you generating enough revenues to be able to support your interest payments etc going forward and and what we have is that you know we have moved our interest payments to a tax revenue from somewhere around forty seven point five percent to 41 0.22% and the trajectory you know continues downwards so that's important that's why we keep talking about the need to watch your primary balance and so that you are you are not borrowing to support your payments of interest and okay so two points there so you have seen the report which is fair let me be quite clear they said a high risk of death distress that's the way they use near Anna's public debt stood at 170 3.2 billion cities as of end of 2018 an occurrence the summary of economic affairs editor of the Bank of Ghana and then they were named other countries in the group to include Burundi Cameroon kept wet central carry public Djibouti Ethiopia Gambia Mauritania so to me Principia Zambia this is high risk and at a moderate risk to things you see our debt GDP is not below 60 we know we recalibrated and rebase the GDP nuts but you also know that some analysts think that a better measure of your debt sustainability is not yet the true GDP but debt to say tax revenues that to exporters so for those numbers what do those numbers show about our destined ability that's what I'm saying that we have moved from about 47.4% maybe in 2016 to where it was 41.9% in 2018 and we expected to go down by 2022 to be about 30% so you do not agree that we are high risk of death distress no I don't and I really expect the the movement in a revenue and the way in which we've been doing diability management and to ensure that we are able to support the direction we are going another point on that so again in 2018 we dealt actually around 19% and of course if you take out with the banking sector debt then that's around 12% but the bunches like that is our reality so we can take it out okay couple of points some people feel that we are caught in a foreign debt trap and coming out of it depends among other things on raising debt in our own currency being able to do that more we went for a euro bond we are using about a third of what we got to retire all the debts so some people feel it's going to continue and so we find that differently and yeah I think you know the different way it's the issue of industrialization and I think the trade minister talked about and what we do with agriculture you know how do we really change the structure of our economy from the president's talk about a gadget spective economy into one in which we manufacture we produce and and we grow what we eat you know is going to be the key issues for us going forward I the the Ghana beyond eight vision aspects the Ghana is going to be a regional hub for a number of things petroleum services Regional Airport financial services and car assemblies and therefore manufacture of spare parts etc that begins to structurally change and this is something that has been done in countries like Morocco etc so it's not a pipe dream you know it's a certainty that we must and that then changes this whole equation and calculus that we are talking about whatever the issue of raising more debt in our own currency as against debts from the external market okay Zubin are you have savings yeah and investments and we have a huge gap between what we need for investment and the savings ok I think it's only these past seven or years and that really the pension fund industry is now growing to be able to be part of participation in sort of local bond bond flotation and and that we have to encourage you know that's no question about that but if you get cheaper money outside you do go to Europe and so for example I'd in the 2030s which is the the bond we did in 2015 it's a ten point five percent coupon even after a World Bank wrap around in terms of a guarantee now you do and and let's say this year we got eight point one two five percent and for the 12 year bond ok so that's a difference of about two percentage points a two percentage points on a billion may give you what about twenty million or so for ten years or so that's like 200 million CDs and dollars now you so doing an eight point one two five this year you know it's a much better deal to use that money to then that so you save on the term you so there's gonna be quite a bit of liability management going on given that the prior bonds we had were tad too expensive and we need to manage those out let's talk about this structure economy thing and then listeners I will take your questions at 8:15 so if you wanna call give five minutes for questions quick straight to the point can you address them before he goes to work in the finance ministry this morning so somebody put out some thoughts interesting says looking at the chance for me yesterday's town hall meeting it appears that there is a slowdown in industrial growth so let me read it it says another chart from today's town-hall meeting and this is why our GDP was 2.4 percent when 16 however the unknown oil growth was 4.6 percent in 2016 notice I about that in 2017 MPP reported on overall GDP including oil of 8.1 but non-oil good remain 4.6 same as NDC's in 2016 now which MPP initiative policy in 2017 was responsible for the oil sector growth that accounted for the stellar growth in 2018 in 8.1 and then he said something curiously if there was such a stellar policy in 2017 we should be seen incremental growth in 2018 instead of the downward trajectory to 5.6 so this person put this out and was wondering the the reduction in the industrial sector growth between 2017 and 2018 I don't know if you have those documents before you but are you concerned about the the sources of our growth because you've instituted one d1f for example and you expect that industrial growth who increase in 2018 but it doesn't seem to be following the trajectory if you have you'd studied those you know I think we have and and the issue is you know in most of these cases the lag effect that we we all know what would happen but it does not mean that we shouldn't keep a foot on the accelerator so yes but I think if you look at the trends things are trending much better me we did a sport maze for the first time I mean I don't know how many years so Bernard I think that I mean that the challenge really for us the EMT managing the economy is trying to ensure that there's some short-term relief but be very clear on the medium and long-term goals and I think these are fundamental palace and that we have to put down and for that and there will be challenges and I guess for us as citizens is where do we want to go in the nest in a few years and how do we rally behind a swath of policies that would fundamentally transform the economy and that is what we're working out but I think there's going to be some sacrifices in between and some challenges and some missteps etc but from at least what dr. Pommier presented you can see a country in motion a country on the go and yes you know there may be some pessimism here and there but generally I think we as a people feel much stronger much prouder than where we were some time ago and that is what we need to get a conversation and narrative around so that we don't we don't go back and it is part of the reason why Bernard we went to the Parliament in the last session and to put in the fiscal responsibility rule that we have all agreed that deficit will not go beyond 5% the primary balance should be positive to address the debt issue and that the Minister of Finance will be sensitive that is breached you know so I think it is those things that I really fundamental to us as a nation and a people so that we keep on course to have an industrialized let's talk about the root sector which is a major issue government according to the Columbia says it's going to spend 1.5 billion dollars of the two billion sino hydrobox out oxide butter transaction on roads and in fact last week somebody close to government put out a cryptic tweet and said that if I were you our star lobbying finance when I start to include my rule in the list of the 1.5 billion so I didn't know I could love you for a road to be done this have change burner where where people use a stream to the finance ministry I mean we we determined that the sector ministers ministry should be responsible for what they do we do have to make sure that their resources available for that I'm a finance minister II really should not be where people come to for for such things so I'll redirect you to the finance machine but true yes and I think that's the exciting thing about what what we are trying to do how do you open up the country to ensure and that goods and services and come to the appropriate places in the marketplace and this is where we are we are doing some some good work on the roads at the same time having our eye on 2020 yeah and sure that you know we don't you know break the bank in 2020 and that policies are still sanguine so you're saying you need to start doing the infrastructure now we need to start doing it now I think I mean I've not been in government before but it sounds to me that if you don't get your infrastructure in place with the appropriate finance and a year or two before election period it leads to the point where you know election periods seem to be disaster period is all your suffer muffle actually who has been able to hold it unfortunately he's on South outside of the bench and so we're gonna if you are referring to that deficit at twenty four four compared to other election years that's the only year the deficit was not widened was in 2004 melts let's take a few calls out three zero two two two four nine five nine zero three zero two two three zero zero seven five if you that was a branding question you wanted asked yesterday of the emt which was not asked you have a few minutes to do that before the minister leaves us straight to the point you mention your name what your question is and he would address them before he leaves zero three zero two two two four nine five nine zero three zero two two three zero zero seven five and we also have a third number for those of you have not been as we have a number called zero two zero two zero six three five nine eight zero two zero two zero six three five nine eight trying to bring governance to your doorsteps government appointees speaking directly to the people taking phone calls on the economy let me read one quick one before the first phone call comes through Bennett please ask the finance minister about Esler what is the status of the bed how much was it how much has been bid but this is three questions we are asking are the status of the s Allah how much was it how much has been peed and is it true that part of s Allah was used to pay for tier 2 pensions in 2017 salia this request is powerful Luther question so yahoo answer that let me take let me please take your time we take charge on the phone then you answer to Kinnear but send him his responses charge AMA crabbed morning good morning you 11 [Music] the government has spent over two hundred million cities to develop a comprehensive urban transport project in that project Iowa law was born what is the a emts plan for Iowa no hundred million dollars what are we doing thank you Thank You Charles he wants to know about I alluded thank you for your calls over three zero two two two four nine five nine to three hours or so that cuckoo is calling from Lagoon hello cuckoo from the trickle down just like which rather increases for freedom against those imported now there should be a mechanism to check that is all used to between five thousand dollars fourteen five thousand on an imported vehicle now I'm going to be pinging seven thousand there should be these clips we go trouble we have reduction in step and not the same amount we should stop crying okay thank you for your call I think okay she's very clear I thank you for calling a dozen man who could let go to manual in a crime uh no good morning good morning on the reduction on the effective so what you call it the bench read the benchmark suite and then actually I would add a simple festive let us do the bench the best part which is how disease and a natural gt800 pills on which is the reduction of would be applied on okay thank is a question color he her question is Claire we reduce the benchmark rate we haven't changed the tariffs so the benchmark is what comes down by 50% but and I've in the same that the tariff is applied to that Thank You mano Joseph from below East Joseph good morning good morning on air yeah you know the banking sector the to missile means that science was also part of the package database today I hate talking about the microfinance yeah no pity money to like take control of the microphones abiding forgotten about submission which is directly below the traditional by the Reserve Bank what what are we doing about it thank you for your question I'll take two final ones and then we're coming back to the studio so justice is calling for Millennium City casa hello justice manisa my question to the ministers now the which bill is increasing how can they assure is that it would be worry I will not go back to the IMF again thank you for your call and out end with James who is calling from inside woman hello James yes good morning morning on earth yeah my question I just need more clarification on the bench Michael does that effect already known value that custom system is using or it only for those values that are not in the custom system I'm talking about a 50% reduction for the car import because customs already have the values from zero start does it affect that or it is for those that are not in the customs thank you thank you for your call my brother can so you have your questions great thank you very much indeed and thanks for the call yesterday I did speak about the microfinance institutions and that we put some resources aside for that is in the same vein that we are looking at the SDI special deposit institution which includes the savings and loans and so those also we are putting together a plan for because we really want to by year and you know have a sense that the bank in the financial sector is on a good footing on the wage bill front I think that has a you know sort of kept reducing in terms of percentage you to to tax revenue since we came and it was forty nine point nine percent came down to 47 45 and we are now around 43% for for this year and but I think you ask a good question about the IMF and and this is our 16th and I think we have exited and for good and we put a lot of sort of irreversibility structures buffers in place such as the fiscal rule and the advisory and then the financial services sector and then also we we now have discussions of employers and union called the social partnership agreement which would enable us to to monitor ourselves set targets and make sure that the IMF in a sense is replaced and by our own stakeholders to be on course and so we are we are very confident about that going forward and if you add that to and the type of industrialization agriculture plans that we have justice I can assure you that we won't we won't get back to somebody asked about the trickle-down effect because it felt as I indicated that importers will just chop the profit yeah that's true but Bernard then that becomes you know the issue of our uh Nancy sociology how do we as our own people begin to discipline ourselves and and how does competition you know force prizes to do to be competitive but really in a sense are we going to continue as a disciplined and society in with this social justice and therefore pass through and people paying their taxes and but that's a bigger conversation and that we should have as a nation and somebody wanted to know a couple of points that I think it was the first caller transportation for the two hundred million dollars isle Alou is not working I don't know if address that already I haven't addressed them because I don't have the full information on that but I can send that if I get his email but still on the poor and I'm Liam so I am too that there was a the EMT test and incest Minister Committee to look at the MPS project and the affected to have on jobs at the port so the point is so important to you and I did interview the CEO of the Ghana ports who did confirm that over a thousand people may lose their jobs when the new controllers of the poor take over I'm not sure if you have a vetted reminder that the reports because we've been given copies and it seems as if there are a lot of another questions about what will happen after MPS starts running here at this point I think that that's true there's lots of questions and is a subject you know of discussion and I'm not sure that it is over with but that's that's a key point in that and we have had all sorts of inquiries and representations on but we would do the right thing for Ghana so can I see you are this is not over you are still in right because the report I'm told was ready a year ago and hasn't been acted upon yeah so it's not done you would do something about we have to do something about somebody else about savings and loans yes is that this was the special deposit institutions we've done the microfinance I think we are clear on how much resources we are going to put into that and then we also have a plan for for the SNL's yeah all right let's wrap up with a few quick text messages and this one's called one minute one text so you answer it before you goes like one d1 f zero five four nine nine but I think you know you did talk about you know some of the roots and the implications which is important okay I mean put it like that cross city in a city rose Kumasi in a city tamale interchange PTC runabout in in Tecate identity that raju actualization here and then suriani in a city cube cost new Abramoff was a you know and then Jessica so all these will be completely redone will be will be done it does it can pass the eastern corridor yes I see all right so I'm told on on Friday that Amelie interchange will be commissioned that would be on the 10th so that's next week next week that's Amelie interchange yeah we'll be done so really we are we're not going to see you know enhance activity not only would that be ensuring that we have better infrastructure but the jobs that are going to be created you know there's a 30% local content and so we get our contractors you know back back into operation some people do to know where that this input valuation thing didn't have to go to the final before it was announced because I think doc said it takes effect from today I began with administrative issues I mean when you talk about benchmarking you are not talking about stuff that is legislated either right that's administrative yes so it's not that big oh we haven't talked about the import tariffs being changed what does the finance minister assess the progress of not code to be is not code doing any value addition Vasavi the cost we incur non-it I don't know whether there's an unfair question because if I have if I have my sunset now for three years and now he's being paid 700 CDs I think you know it's important a for the family vitae more important also is for the self-dignity of going to work and then the program is that it gives you another chance for three years in which you can also retrain yourself you know to good effect so you know net net I think it's one of those really sort of seminal events in a lot of people's lives to see a way forward and interview like this social justice in in the country they live in an appreciation of this small even a please as finance minister why one d1f is not being financed it needs more money from finance at least what has been allocated in the budget is this true one do you 1/2 I mean I think I'm in the middle of concluding a hundred million dollar facility for example for example which then has much more favorable rates to support one d1f so those are what we are doing and then trade ministers are negotiated of a number of banks so that there's a one d1f window or desk you may say to help facilitate that as we pick up revenue we also have more resources for that somebody says zero tax for textiles was gazetted in the mud 2018 still no implementation plan for it to start yet the president announces in the State of the Nation Address I got all this yes I am but I think you know even more significant is for the trade ministers dream of Akosombo textiles etc to rehabilitate it so that production will pick up and employment will go up and and in that regard is also making sure the people who bring test house in appropriately times you launched a lot of initiatives and incentives for imported someone to know what incentives have you given to exporters exported we have one d1f and in Parliament yesterday maybe second or third reading of specific I mean centers for them so that's not being taken for granted at all mr. Minister fellows please in things relating to see the why is the Chinese type of fixed exchange rate regime not an option Adam Smith from pourquoi see [Music] [Laughter] we have the the francophones around us you know her fix exchange rate backed by and the euro or by France so the question is accumulating that type of resources to back your currency and to be able to support that now the issue of price discovery is important what is the value of your currency you know and and I think it is what you go through when you allow it to float as we are doing and hopefully as you then move to exchanging your current account structure you have you know the type of levels I want or more stability because your reserves will also be stronger and I think that nothing more effectively can Thompson who I interviewed you with a few years ago is saying that we shall are the city to fall to his natural rate of six to that dollar he says when we do that it won't fall again yeah it's a six or four well what do you do in a transition period you know can we absorb the potential shocks in in a certain period and and so those are all sort of interesting and things to think about practically you can and the practicality went you know is this work I you read them because that's a government while she is dropping from five points I almost got to six at some point why do we allow just the six well it is it almost go to one example at five at some points I think I think those are sort of healthy discussions and but really when I as we started if we don't change the structure of our economy will be talking about the instance forever and so the industrialization base input substitution s for drive it's going to be the solution for that and maybe we'll get to success can things my final question to you so a lot of people listen and they want to give government the benefit of the doubt yes you've said that it takes time for the policies to translate in explaining that the transmission mechanism and all those things here so we are in April 2019 give us a sense of when you feel that the majority of the policies you've put in place since you started people start feeling more of it more of it than there what kind of threshold are you working with in your mind I want you or do you need another four years after 2020 also said that you were digging up a lot of a deep hole that with a man could dug for us so we need to know your thinking process around when you hope the things you've put in place we'll start Germany German Italy in actuality there there are a number of things I mean clearly four years to transform an economy it's not adequate nothing will admit that in between the their various you know you know collective measures that you do and and we have done some of that and that if you look at the cost of food if you look at senior high school if you look at the performance of nhi s etc you are beginning to see now the issue of translating and and our incomes Bernard you know are not where they should be you know clearly for each person which means that we need a certain level of growth you know probably double jaded am to be able to then move our incomes levels that in my mind are decent ok that we have to do and so certainly for years you know enough for me it is for four years but by the four years I think we can change four years a long time not for what to transform the structure of the economy I can talk for everybody's here to transform the structure of the economy which then translates into how it impacts you an eye on an individual basis in between there how do you make education cheaper how do you make food cheaper how'd you make health cheaper how do you ensure that transportation is easier for people so those things we are very certain we will be able to do okay and then we move on to the full industrialization through agriculture which do not you know would take more than four years to do and when we're talking about moving a country about 60 something years old today so the hope we're not is that you are comfortable that the economy is being managed in a way in which we won't be in distress then we move to the social intervention that we have then we move to policies that will support industrialization and entrepreneurship and then the infrastructure that we are doing so it's a it's a complex group of things how many years would it take to to transform the country to the vision you spelled out in your manifesto the vision with Sparta in a moment so that it was not what's not for you we have a property-owning democracy that without an inclusive transformation I think even dr. Berman said yesterday a society with include a transformed society with inclusive development something something long thing he said yeah but bourbon are you asking a very fair question I'm trying to know because we seem to both know that we see budagher when people say they can feel the absolute change in their pocket and we also seem to agree that the structure of the economy from Gettysburg needs to change that's correct you got me so what I'm trying to find out from you is and we are doing that when do you and we are doing that but I was speaking to was it could you powerful kojic would your watching you could you're watching could you do it don't smart one and and we did talk you know about his income and the galamsey he does and you know and still you know seeming to be behind the curve and therefore when would this okay you know and that's really kind of your average hard-working citizen you know so we talked about well how do we get these incomes to be decent you know even as we stabilize the economy incomes moving up fast enough for that and how do we then ensure the corporates you know are doing well so that that structure would change and in that that should be a goal but even in that period we should make sure that social services are available that people can go to school people can go to the hospital people can get transportation and food you know it's affordable and so we're we are confident that will do very well by the end of the fourth so Singapore China and Korea yes tell me how Generation IV and we are not ready to well but we have well I don't you have all of this data okay which we seem to suggest that it takes quite a bit of time for transformational change and I think maybe it's that conversation that we should have as a narrative it's not a political discussion we're not you know it's really about us saying well this is where we are you know given history of what other countries of the form where how can we get there and maybe in a faster trajectory because of digitalization and technology you know a better education and I think that really would be I was in them I was in no way in which you could see you know so there were really broad consensus that's where they believe the nation should go and then on the margins is what you know that you knew then you then debate on and I really believe that like the EMT engagement in a town hall meeting begins to get that type of information out and conversations like this will lead us into a reality check as to how fast we can move how quickly we can go and the consensus on on moving this idea we did the constraints of our electoral politics thank you can avert a missile finals we appreciate the time you spent with us we recognize you have other things to do which also equally important so we appreciate the time thank you we hope to see you again soon thank you banana I really appreciate it there was a book I read recently no way which was the enemy of the public by Epson you know Shakespeare's look-alike and it was one sentence at the end which said the strongest man in the world is the one who is left standing alone and Ghana really in my mind is doing the right things the left standing alone a beacon of democracy and the response to us as we left the IMF was incredible with the response to the bond which is an indication of investors trust in the future a third one year born which is the longest that we have on the continent you know so we have some really solid fundamentals going for us and really is up to us as a nation you know to stand alone and ensure that we don't lose sight of the vision of them in our society Henry clips I'll find it that gives an enemy of the public all the people thank you that was kind of a attack [Music] you

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Keywords: Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana Economy, Citi CBS, Citi Breakfast Show, Bernard Avle, Benard Avle

Id: z52qF_qrp8Q

Length: 51min 52sec (3112 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 04 2019