Mahama Gov't; Bad Managers Of Ghana's Economy - IEA Research Proves

In line with its goal to promote good public policies, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has conducted a survey to assess the perceptions of Ghanaians on the socio-economic and governance conditions in Ghana. The survey, which was carried out in mid-June/July last year highlighted some major salient issues affecting the Ghanaian citizenry. In an attempt to draw the Government of Ghana's attention to the numerous socio-economic challenges confronting the citizenry, the IEA established that 63.3 percent of Ghanaians regard their current living conditions to be bad. During a press conference at the Conference Hall of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in Accra on Tuesday, Dr. Ransford Gyampo, a Researcher (Governance Unit) at the Institute noted that only 25.2% of the populace consider their lives under the Mahama administration to be good. He further recounted that the Institute's research from various regions showed that females representing 66.5 percent of the regional population reported worse conditions than males who represented 60.4 percent. "This is not surprising since males tend to be generally better off economically than females given that males have better opportunities in education and jobs and tend to have higher incomes." Majority of Ghanaians indicated that their "living conditions remained the same or worsened over the last six months..." "More people in Western, Central, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions reported bad living conditions..." Addressing the performance of the current administration, Dr. Ransford Gyampo told the press that the Mahama government has performed poorest in reducing prices and creating jobs for the people. He said per their research, 56 percent of Ghanaians see the current administration as poor managers of the economy. They believe "the current government is managing the economy very badly as against only 5% who say the government is doing very well. The Institute further indicated that the unemployment rate in the country is the most critical problem facing a chunk of Ghanaians. "...Unemployment is still dominant problem though it is more endemic in the urban places (22.7%) than the rural areas (16.0%). Again, education, roads, water supply, transportation, farming/agriculture and health are more of a concern in the rural areas than the urban areas." On public safety, according to the IEA, several Ghanaians however feel secure within their neighbourhoods. "Our results indicate that more than 7 out of every 10 persons (74.3%) reported that they felt safe walking in the neighbourhood during the day or during the night...Given the level of safety, only 27.2% reported someone had been attacked in their neighbourhood." However, majority of Ghanaians who have been victims of attacks or burglaries at home failed to report to the Police because they "believe that it would be a waste of time since they would be required to make repeated visits to the Police station." The Institute also stressed that ethnic variations also have impacted the Ghanaian populace negatively. Ethnic or gender differences potentially affect the opportunities of people securing government jobs, contracts, loans from government banks, entry into the security services and admission into various educational institutions. In conclusion, the Institute called for policy reforms by the government to better the living conditions of Ghanaians.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com