Economist and Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) Professor Peter Quartey has advised the John Mahama government to pursue capital infrastructure projects in the National Development Plan to ensure their continuity even after leaving office.

He cautioned the government not to select and build projects that may not have long term impact on citizens.

Prof. Quartey made the statement at his inaugural lecture on March 13, 2025 at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences on the topic “Debt, Investment and Growth in Ghana: Did we borrow to consume?

According to him, capital projects should be carefully selected through a national development planning process.

This, he said will help assess the impact of the projects before funds are committed to it.

“When we are selecting some of these projects, we must look at the national development plan. We must consider our medium term strategy and what we want to achieve before we start”, he advised.

Prof. Quartey cautioned against the selection of projects purely on partisan considerations.

Such projects, he observed do not serve the citizens and do not impact the economic wellbeing of majority of the people.

“I didn’t see much of that in the last elections. But previously you see incumbents cutting sods, left right center to start projects in an election year. These are projects that have not been planned”, he said.

He kicked against such unplanned projects, warning such politically interest driven projects only add to the country’s debt.