Economists express concern about silence of State of Nation Address on solutions to key economic challenges

A Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics at the University of Cape Coast, Dr Eric Osei Assibey, says President Mahama's use of evidence based presentation at the State of the Nation address was a novelty but it could have been done sparingly to achieve the intended result. 

He said though the content of the presentation was good, there were certain details lacking. 

Speaking on GBC's Current Affairs  Programme "Talking Point", Dr Assibey said he expected the President to touch more on macro-economic issues and measures being put in place to boost the manufacturing and Agricultural sector, adding that the President failed to give details on debt management.

Head of the Finance Department at the University of Ghana, Dr. Godfred Bokpin, said he was not impressed with the scope of the President’s presentation.  

He said more should have been said on unemployment and how government will absorb trained nurses and teachers who have not been given their posting. 

On the energy sector, Dr Bokpin said it is great the challenges have been solved but something must be done about the cost.

For his part, the Technical Advisor at the Ministry of Finance, Dr John Baffoe, said solving the energy crises that engulfed the nation for years was in the right direction. 

He said there is the need to diversify the system to boost the economy.

GBC