If This Government Is Going to Do Anything About the Economy, It Needs to Start Now

If this government intends to do anything meaningful about the economy, it needs to start now. The sense of drift has become unmistakable. For years, the focus has been on macroeconomic stability — a phrase that now feels more like a holding pattern than a plan. The Bank of Ghana continues to intervene in the foreign exchange market and adjust interest rates in an effort to contain volatility. Yet the cedi still trembles at every external shock, and inflation still eats quietly into every household’s earnings.

There have been moments of calm, yes, but not confidence. The pattern is familiar: a brief appreciation of the currency, a self-congratulatory press release, and then another round of depreciation. The cedi’s movements have become a barometer not of progress, but of anxiety. Stability is supposed to build foundations for growth; here, it has become the entire project.

The Missing Real Economy

Beyond the numbers, the government’s effort in the real economy remains disappointingly thin. The much-touted 24-hour economy policy, which could have opened a conversation on productivity, infrastructure, and labour efficiency, has fallen silent. There is no sign of a framework, no coordination, no clear path toward implementation. What began as an idea has ended as an echo.

Instead, we see isolated gestures — a presidential visit to a poultry farm, an announcement of a zero-tariff trade deal with China. These may look like activity, but they do not amount to direction. Ghana will not become competitive through symbolic visits or token partnerships. We will not out-export China, nor will a single poultry facility transform our agricultural base. These moments reveal a government content with motion, not progress.

The Reform Vacuum

What is missing is not ambition, but reform. The informal sector, which remains the backbone of the economy, continues to operate without structure or support. Over 80 percent of working Ghanaians remain outside the tax and credit systems that could turn survival into stability. The small businesses that power our markets still operate in isolation — unbanked, unregistered, unprotected.

At the same time, the government has shown little curiosity about the technologies shaping the world. Artificial Intelligence is not a future debate; it is a present one. Yet, there is no national conversation, no policy paper, no recognition that the next generation of competitiveness will depend not on minerals or commodities, but on data and innovation.

The Cost of Delay

Each month of hesitation deepens the stagnation. The country remains trapped in a pattern of short-term thinking: selling gold to stay solvent, borrowing to stay afloat, and managing the symptoms of decline rather than addressing its causes. Environmental devastation from small-scale mining continues to eat into the foundations of rural life. The economy may survive these choices for now, but the society will not.

There is still time to act — but barely. This government has one last chance to turn rhetoric into reform, to treat policy as more than performance, and to begin the difficult work of rebuilding from the ground up. Economic transformation does not come from announcements; it comes from decisions.

If this administration is serious about growth, it must stop managing decline and start governing. The country cannot live forever on the hope of future stability. The time for economic courage is not next year. It is now.