Starving fear: A shared responsibility for development

For a few hours on Friday 9 October, the ICGC Christ Temple on Teshie Bush Road in Accra looked less like a church than a vast robing room. Horsehair wigs, black gowns and white bands moved down the aisles in their hundreds as families jostled for photographs and the General Legal Council (GLC) enrolled 1,568 new lawyers, the largest single cohort since Ghana began training its own lawyers.

Ghana’s commercial discovery of lithium by Atlantic Lithium of Canada was met with great expectation by Ghanaians with constant commentary by experts, religious bodies and civil society organisations, all excited by the prospect of this discovery.

At a busy filling station somewhere in Accra, an attendant rests the pump nozzle inside a sedan’s fuel tank. Seconds after a sharp metallic click signals the tank is full, the attendant glances at the driver and asks a routine question: “Master, should I round it up?”

Ghana’s housing affordability debate has long focused on the cost of building materials, labor, mortgage finance, inflation, exchange-rate depreciation and construction technology. These are important considerations, but they do not tell the whole story. Before a developer can build a house, the land must first be acquired and in some parts of Ghana’s urban and peri-urban markets, that initial cost has become a formidable barrier to affordable housing delivery.

Three years after entering an IMF programme amid one of its deepest economic crises in decades, Ghana is being cited by the Fund as an example for other countries facing similar difficulties. The turnaround is reflected in the numbers but sustaining it will require more than macroeconomic stabilisation. The government's New Economy agenda will translate these gains into productive investment, job creation and higher living standards.

For a county that significantly depends on the oil and gas industry to keep its economy afloat like Ghana cannot afford to leave structural and legal provision open should any major company face restriction whether locally or internationally that hinders their production especially in this fragile geopolitical atmosphere.

The Sherrif Security Indicator (TSSI) is an annual online survey conducted to commemorate Cyber Security Awareness Month. TSSI surveys the security concerns of people living in Ghana. This is the seventh edition.

I still remember the incident as if it was yesterday. I just happened to have opened my blinds to look out of the window when I saw the commotion in the car park.