Prior to the 2016 general elections, the then-candidate Akufo-Addo made a popular statement that “Yete Sika So Nanso Ekom De Yen” to describe the worst state of the Ghanaian economy under the incompetent leadership of John Mahama.
That statement is still valid today, and ignorantly John Mahama and NDC are using it to attack the government of President Akufo-Addo.
One of the greatest attributes of a good leader is the identification of sustainable financial resources anchored on a homegrown policy for socio-economic development. That is exactly what President Akufo-Addo in his 2022 budget presented to Parliament for approval.
‘Yete Sika So Nanso Ekom De Yen,’ but President Akufo-Addo has shown the country where the ‘sika’ is through the E-Levy policy. However, due to the sabotaging behaviour of John Mahama, Speaker Bagbin and NDC Members of Parliament, we are unable to utilise the vast financial resources in the Electronic Transactions industry.
Sabotage
The NDC Members of Parliament and Speaker Bagbin are deliberately sabotaging Government’s business in Parliament as well as the E-Levy due to the recent Supreme Court ruling in favour of the voting rights of Deputy Speakers.
One thing we need to understand is that, apart from Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), which has the capacity to generate 70-80 billion Ghana Cedis for the country through VAT, NHIL, COVID-19 HRL, corporate taxes, income taxes etc., which government agencies, institutions or natural resources are able to generate US$1 billion dollars annually for the country? As it stands now, there is certainly none.
According to a report by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), Ghana earned US$6.5billion out of the total US$31billion generated from the three oil-producing fields in 10 years.
Also, as a reminder, Ghana secured US$1 billion three-year IMF loan programme in a bid to revive the economy under the incompetent John Mahama, yet the economy woefully failed to revive under him. The economy grew from bad to worse under John Mahama’s administration.
However, President Akufo-Addo, true to his statement that ‘Yete Sika So Nanso Ekom De Yen’, has shown us where the money is. He has equally provided an alternative homegrown policy that is sustainable in nature to help the country generate US$1 billion annually to support the economy through E-Levy, an amount IMF gave to Mahama John as a loan for three years.
E-Levy policy
Through Akufo-Addo’s E-Levy policy, Ghana would be generating an estimated amount of US$10billion in 10 years, which far exceeds the US$6.5billion Ghana earned from the oil resource in the last 10 years, between 2011 and 2022.
According to the records from the Bank of Ghana, Mobile Money transactions grew by 13% to GHS76.2billion in January 2022, GHS67. 9 billion in January 2021, and GHS82. 9billion in December 2021. The registered Mobile Money accounts stood at 48.4 million in January 2022 and, Mobile Money remained the biggest payment solution platform in Ghana with an estimated GHS905. 1billion transactions recorded in 2021.
The value of mobile money transactions in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December 2021 were estimated at GHS67. 1billion, GHS67.9billion, GHS82.3 billion, GHS83.8 billion, GHS86. 5 billion, GHS89.1 billion, GHS99.1 billion, GHS81. 8 billion, GHS71 billion, GHS80 billion, GHS86. 1 billion and GHS82. 9 billion respectively.
Mind you, with all these quantum of monies derived from the Mobile Money transactions, the Government of Ghana always gets peanuts while the bulk of the monies is retained by the telecommunications companies. Interestingly, these companies are foreign entities which transfer their profits from the Mobile Money transactions to their respective home countries through conversion of our Cedi into dollars, causing capital flight, which automatically adds to the depreciation of the Cedi
No competition
Now, which of Ghana’s natural resources can compete with Mobile Money transactions in the country? Absolutely none.
The revenue target of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for the year 2022 is GHS80.3 billion. Sadly, this is far below the Mobile Money transactions for the months of March, April, May, June, July, August, October, November and December 2021.
President Akufo-Addo shall forever be remembered by posterity for showing Ghana where the money is, that we are sitting on and still struggling to feed our people largely due to the unpatriotic behaviour of John Mahama, Speaker Bagbin and NDC Members of Parliament who are determined to undermine the E-Levy policy.
The E-Levy has directed us to the answer of ‘Yete Sika So Nanso Ekom De Yen’, and clearly, the E-Levy is the best alternative homegrown policy to the usual borrowing, peanuts from our natural resources and donor support or loan from IMF/World Bank.
