Media General has organised a maiden 3Business Summit which brought economists together to proffer solutions to Ghana’s economic woes.

The event dubbed The Economic Sustainability Summit was held on Tuesday, April 4, at the Marriot Hotel in Accra.

Addressing the summit in his opening address, the General Manager of 3Group, Francis Doku said, the initiative which is one of many to come is aimed at discussing the drivers of Ghana’s economy and economic efforts.

He said the maiden edition focused on public debt and the ongoing debt restructuring programme which had triggered heated debates and reactions in the country.

According to Mr Doku, the government had made significant progress on the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme with a subscription rate of approximately 85 per cent of eligible bonds.

He said that notwithstanding the pressing need to address Ghana’s mounting debt, factors driving it and the potential socio-economic implications of the country’s approach towards debt restructuring have received limited attention.

According to him, this lack of discussion could lead to a limited understanding of the entire process for the public and impede efforts to identify effective solutions that ensured the long-term sustainability of the economy.

“For us at Media General and especially at 3 Business, and with the buy-in of our partners ACEP and Imani Africa, we thought that it was indeed time to place the Debt Restructuring Programme on the chopping board and to ignite discussions,” he said.

Professor Godfred Bokpin who opened the event with a lecture revealed that even though Ghana’s debt was classified as high risk, there was no need to restructure the debt, because the country still had market access.

He added that after restructuring the country’s debt, Ghana has lost out on market access to international and domestic capital markets.

The Professor of Finance presented charts showing the distance between Ghana and her independence peer, where the Gross Domestic Product gap had widened.

“You’ll be 78 times better off living in Malaysia than Ghana and 80 times better living in Singapore, I’m not saying relocate, but is doable if we want to,” he said.

Other speakers like Executive Director of ACEP, Benjamin Boakye, Economist and Prof. of Finance, Godfred Alufar Bokpin, Senior Partner, AB and David Africa, David Ofosu Dorte, Financial Consultant, Doris Ahiati, and Executive Chairman, Kleeve and Tove, Senyo Hosi shared their knowledge on the subject.

By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme