Bring Heritage Fund home and invest it in infrastructure – Adu Sarkodie

An economist, Dr Owusu Adu Sarkodie, has proposed to the government to bring home the Heritage Fund and invest it locally rather than in a foreign country where the interest on the fund is nominal.

According to him, the Heritage Fund is not earning any significant interest rate outside the country and would be of immense benefit to the government and future generations if the Fund is brought home and invested in infrastructure that will last years.

“We have invested the Heritage Fund outside, and it is earning us a 2 percent nominal interest rate when the US inflation rate is now 8 percent.

Dr Sarkodie added, “my proposal is that the Heritage Fund currently is about $1 billion

It must be brought home and invested in this country so that the government can borrow from the fund because it is better for the government to borrow from the heritage fund locally and pay about 5 percent than keeping it in somebody’s country and earning us 2 percent nominal and negative 6 percent real.”

“Honestly, I think that the heritage fund should be brought home and invested in physical infrastructure, something like a railway line…because the essence of the heritage fund is to save for the future generation…so it is better to construct roads that will last for about 100 years than to keep it somebody’s country and earn a negative real interest rate on it, it doesn’t make economic prudence.

Franklin Cudjoe, a founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the IMANI Center for Policy and Education agreed with the proposal of Dr Sarkodie adding that bringing the Heritage Fund Ghana will yield more benefits to the government than keeping the fund abroad.