According to him, such a move will rather enhance trading activities in the country, while inviting other countries to trade with Ghana.

[contextly_sidebar id=”E1SwEub7A6QOlXPvHpEQxAOhypURJtg0″]Government has extended its IMF program to April 2019, to enable it to meet set targets.

Ghana in 2015, entered into an agreement for $918 million to support the economy.

This extension has led to numerous agitations from various business groups as they believe the IMF program hampers employment opportunities among others.

But in an interview with Citi News, Dr. Spio Garbrah maintained that the programme can inure to the benefit of the business community.

“.. If your country is perceived by the international community to be a credible country from an economic and finance development and finance management point of view, then in theory, you are also a good destination for both private equity and are also a good destination for people who want to send their goods by way export…”

The benefits of the programme will also extend to favorable interest rates that will benefit businesses, Dr. Spio Garbrah added.

“Theoretically, if an IMF programme leads to you getting resources at a lower cost, that should also lead to lower interest rates for businesses who can use the lower interest rates to borrow, manufacture and to trade,” the former Trade Minister explained.

In the latest extension, IMF approved an additional 94 million dollar disbursement for the extension, which implied that freeze on government sector employment will linger on.

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By: Jessica Aryorkor Aryee/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Businesses can capitalise on IMF extension – Spio Garbrah appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

In an interview with Citi News, he said this was evidenced by the fact the government is yet to clearly declare the cost and funding for the policy.

[contextly_sidebar id=”fiwToeD7vtUAsgJ4wBESo2WHIiwjg3b9″]”Today that Free SHS has started, even the total cost is still not known and where the money is going to come from is still not known,” Dr. Spio Garbrah stated.

He recalled that in 2012, when President Nana Akufo-Addo was a presidential candidate, he could not disclose the cost of the free SHS when asked on the BBC’s HardTalk program.

Dr. Spio Garbrah’s cohorts in the opposition National Democratic Congress have also accused the government of reneging on the free SHS promise because it was later announced that it would not cover continuing students.

Dr. Spio Garbrah noted that “the timing and execution of all these things have become a challenge partly because of the poor planning that took place and the very interesting promises which are not easy to execute.”

“When government got around to actually examining who should actually benefit from Free SHS, they realised that they could not give to all students so second and third-year students will have to pay their fees like normal.”

As far as funding is concerned, the government allocated GHc 480 million for the policy in the 2017 budget.

President Akufo-Addo, at the launch of the policy on Tuesday, indicated that government has “decided to use the proceeds from our natural resources” to invest in the policy.

Challenge to revenue generation

The free SHS implementation, coupled with the NPP’s removal and slashing of various taxes would have implications for revenue generation, Dr. Spio Garbrah said.

“If you promise free SHS and then in the first three or four months, because you have also promised remove taxes or reduces them, you go and remove and reduce all kinds of taxes then by the first half of the year, you find that you have actually gotten less revenue than you expected and your revenue targets have been missed.”

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By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Free SHS challenges due to poor planning – Spio Garbrah appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This, he said, would ensure that students make informed career choices in their academic progression to drastically reduce graduate unemployment and despondency among the youth.

Dr Spio-Gabrah was speaking at a youth colloquium organised by the Cape Coast Youth Development Association in collaboration with the Oguaa Traditional Council in Cape Coast.

It was on the theme: “The falling standards of education in the Cape Coast metropolis, the role of stakeholders and the relevance of technical and vocational education”.

The Former Minister said the lack of trained counselors equipped with the needed logistics and resources in schools to carry out their mandate had caused unemployment in the country.

“As a country, we seem to have left the role of career choices and proper counselling of students to teachers, some of whom may not be professionally endowed with the right knowledge and skills to perform that task,” he said.

Dr Spio Garbrah also urged parents to regularly visit their wards in school and encourage them to move to the zenith of their careers to enable them become responsible adults.

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Source: GNA

The post Tap into expertise of alumni – Spio Garbrah to schools appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Speaking to Citi News at the Ghana Economic Forum on Monday, Dr. Spio Garbrah said the New Patriotic Party resorted to “sloganeering” to win power.

[contextly_sidebar id=”NIKZAq9mv7HBQ6QvEHHkMY1euiybYe1U”]This “fast food” politics, as he called it, is ultimately unsustainable as evidenced by the change in implementation periods for key policies promised, the former minister said.

“These are the Fast Foods of politics which the NDC may have failed to create… they were good at sloganeering and based partly on their effective sloganeering, they are in office.”

Free SHS being partially implemented

Dr. Spio Garbrah noted further key changes to Free Senior High School education policy that meant it would only be enjoyed by a student entering secondary education in the 2017/2018 academic year for a duration of three years.

He said the promised Free SHS was only being partially implemented “by allowing only those entering SHS this year for the first year to get the scholarships, not free education, and those in the second and third year will not even get the so called scholarships… and then if you don’t even get a certain pass grade, you don’t get to qualify at all.”

“So all of a sudden, parents are realizing that this thing we though were all going to get and children were celebrating, is not happening… so I am saying that there is a shifting of the goal post.”

Dr. Spio Garbrah indicated that he had always been skeptical about the promises because even his government fell short of promises made.

“I’m not actually surprised because we have been in politics for some time and we are aware of the gap between promises. But to the extent that the NDC did not deliver every promise it made, it was used against us in the last election even though President Mahama did a good job of implementing many of his policies and even went beyond what people expected”

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By: Vivian Kai Lokko/Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post NPP’s ‘fast food’ politics exposed – Spio Garbrah appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.