President Mahama Charges Ghanaian Finance Minister to Compare Notes with Okonjo-Iweala

John Dramani Mahama

Ndubuisi Francis  in Abuja

Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama has admonished the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and

Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to work closely with her Ghanaian counterpart, Mr. Seth Terkper, and compare notes regularly on the economies of both countries.

Mahama, who handed down the admonition when Okonjo-Iweala paid him a courtesy visit at the State House in Accra, said both countries needed to cooperate on finance and economic matters among others.

The president, who applauded Okonjo-Iweala’s reforms in the management of Nigeria’s finances and economy, said her patriotic disposition, which compelled her to leave her plum position as managing director of the World Bank, was paying off as Nigeria was the better for it.

According to him, while himself and other Africans were saddened by her departure from the Breton Woods institution, as “we love to have a sister like you in the World Bank,” they were glad to see the positive contributions of the minister to the Nigerian economy.
Mahama noted that Ghana and Nigeria needed to share a lot in common, stressing that while Nigeria had moved positively in many of its economic reform programmes, Ghana was hamstrung by some macro-economic challenges.

On regional integration, Mahama said it holds the key to Africa’s growth, regretting that the Francophone, Anglophone divide had been a major drawback.

The Ghanaian leader noted that trade integration would immensely help the West Africa sub-region in particular and the region in general.

Speaking earlier during a visit to her Ghanaian counterpart Terkper,  Okonjo-Iweala congratulated Ghana for joining the league of oil producing countries, admonishing the country to learn from the mistakes of others, and enact positive laws that would make it maximally harness and benefit from its oil wealth.

The minister disclosed that Nigeria was vigorously pursuing an aggressive economic reforms drive, noting that in spite of daunting challenges, the macro-economic indicators have been looking positive.

Okonjo-Iweala pointed out that the Nigerian government was desirous of achieving an inclusive growth by watching its human indicators, judiciously managing the nation’s resources, and addressing inequality.

The minister stated that among the challenges confronting Nigeria were how to address the huge domestic debt problem, job creation and fiscal deficit, adding that workable solutions had been explored and provided to address them.

She disclosed that, for instance, a sinking fund had been set up to tackle the problem of domestic debt while a deliberate policy had been put in place to progressively drive down fiscal deficit.

The minister added that power sector and other reforms were being pursued by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration relentlessly.

The Ghanaian Finance Minister said one of the challenges facing the country was how to achieve macro-economic stability, adding that the administration was desirous of bringing macro-economic stability on track.

According to him, interest rate was high while education and health account for about 80 per cent of the nation’s budget.