Tema, Nov. 20, GNA – The Reverend Dr Worlanyo Mensah, an Economist and Executive Director, Centre for Greater Impact Africa, has called on the government to develop pro-poor models as well as the ones that would bridge the gap between academia and industries.
Rev. Dr Mensah said this during the analysis of the 2022 Economic Policy and Budget presented to Parliament by the Minister of Finance at the Ghana News Agency Boardroom Dialogue.
The Economist said another aspect of the 2022 budget had to do with building a robust pharmaceutical industry, saying the COVID-19 had taught the country not to rely on imports.
Rev. Dr Mensah said: “So once the government begins to think to make sure that it stabilizes the economy, it now needs to support the few pharmaceutical industries on our shores.
“Look at the amount of money we spent in buying COVID-19 drugs, we could have produced all these drugs and those monies would have remained in our economy and boosted employment situation”.
Rev. Dr Mensah commended the government pledge to support the pharmaceutical industry.
“I think it’s a nice strategic agenda for the state and I believe that if we can take all these processes and policies as stated in the budget then it’s going to be a nice platform to begin to have a good economy.
“But if at the end of the day, we leave it or it is only draft work that we have done and implementation becomes a challenge then it is going to be more of a curse than a blessing.”
Mr Francis Ameyibor, GNA Tema Regional Manager, said, “We found the need to engage those who understand economics to help us educate the population as part of our general contribution to good governance.”
He said the GNA would soon introduce two programmes namely; “My Constituency My Agenda”, and “My District My Agenda” to allow Members of Parliament and politicians and the various district assemblies and their chief executives, coordinating directors and departmental heads to talk about their activities.