An Associate Professor of Economics at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Kenneth Ofori-Boateng, has stated that Ghana does not need agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) when the country has a chunk of experts who could give similar economic policy advice and technical assistance to stabilise the economy.He emphasised that the country had a wealth of financial and economic experts, as well as institutions such as GIMPA, capable of providing solid financial plans to revitalise the economy, including measures to stabilise the Cedi and improve revenue mobilisation, productivity, job creation and economic well-being of Ghanaians.In an interview with The Ghanaian Times last Friday in Accra, Professor Ofori-Boateng, who is also an acting Director of the GIMPA Training and Consulting(GTC), indicated that he was saddened that academicians were not being utilised enough in transforming the Ghanaian economy despite their several research studies which have been ignored by several governments and not been implemented."You need, at least for one particular research, you need, like, $1,500 to be able to do that.
And sometimes all the data you have to buy, especially if you need quality data.
The recent work I did on the cost of doing business in Africa, the kind of data you need, sometimes you even need to compensate the workers who feed you with such information," he explained.He further stated that "the government should make good use of our University since we have all the brains that could help the government prosper.
It's wrong when people say they are not seeing the impact of professors in building our economy."The professor also highlighted that institutions such as GIMPA were equipped with academic professionals who could offer valuable economic guidance, which includes insights into various sectors, such as transport, agriculture, finance, and economic policy development to revamp the public sector economy."Sincerely, GIMPA was established to be able to serve as a consultant to the government in terms of training and consultancies, but due to the lack of commitment to governments in using the academic professionals of the institutions, we have diverted our cause in pursuing academic programmes," he underlined.Professor Ofori-Boateng outlined that, "it seems like we are not an institution that was supposed to be offering and pursuing tertiary programmes.
