Economist Professor Ebo Turkson is urging the government to turn the economy around into a productive one.

According to him, a productive economy will create jobs for the youth, grow businesses and also help the country service its debt easily.

Speaking to Joy Business on the back of the International Monetary Fund engagement with some international creditors for a possible cancelation of Ghana’s debts, Professor Turkson said the cancellation of Ghana’s debt by some bilateral countries is not the way to go to revive the economy.

“This is not a solution to our challenges. It might be a solution to our immediate crisis and for us to be able to tackle a real issue that confronts us as a country, I mean if you are dying, the doctor needs to save you first before they begin to look at the illness that is killing you and that is where Ghana is at the moment”.

“So it is not going to be the solution to our problems. The solution to our problems is for us to turn our economy into a productive economy”, he further said, adding “an economy that is less dependent on borrowing, an economy that is creating jobs for the youth, an economy that is ensuring that we are able to sustainably service our debt”.

Professor Turkson concluded that the solutions to Ghana’s problems are medium to long term and “this support individually from the IMF and if we get it from our creditors, it’s just to free us of the burden that is on our economy now, so that we begin to tackle the critical issues that confront us”.

IMF engages international creditors on cancellation of Ghana’s debt

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, has disclosed that the Fund is engaging some international creditors for a possible cancelation of Ghana’s debts.

According to her, the move is targeted at debt cancellation for countries with distress debt challenges.

She stated that the countries include Chad, Ethiopia, Zambia, Ghana, Lebanon, and Sri Lanka.

“It is very important for their people that we find the resolution to the debt problem, but the risk of contagion is not as high,” she said on American news channel CBS.