Former Finance Minister and Economic Adviser to the President, John Mahama, Seth Terkper, has said Ghana’s engagement with BRICS should help translate its middle-income status into meaningful economic development.
Speaking over the weekend during the official launch of Global Leadership, Innovation and Development Academy (GLIDA) in Accra, Mr Terkper said the proposed partnership should support the country’s economic transformation and strengthen the institutions needed to sustain growth.
“For Ghana, this partnership should seek, you know, to be one of the pillars to catapult Ghana into a true middle-income country, not just on paper,” he said.
Mr Terkper argued that Ghana must draw lessons from emerging economies as it seeks to move beyond its income classification towards a stronger and more resilient economy.
He explained that attaining middle-income status comes with financing challenges, including reduced access to grants and concessional loans. This, he said, creates a need to strengthen domestic financing avenues and explore other sources of development funding.
According to him, these changing financing conditions helped explain Ghana’s reliance on domestic borrowing and international sovereign bond markets to support its capital budget.
“We had to strengthen our domestic markets to finance our capital budget in particular,” he stated.
Mr Terkper cautioned that developing countries often entered sovereign bond markets without adequate preparation, underscoring the need for stronger borrowing frameworks and effective debt repayment mechanisms.
He also called for the strengthening of Ghana’s development finance institutions to support infrastructure investment, pointing to the National Investment Bank as evidence that the country had long recognised the importance of such institutions.
“It is our responsibility as a current generation to strengthen these institutions,” he said.
Mr Terkper cited Malaysia as a country from which Ghana could learn, arguing that international partnerships should help build the structures and leadership required for sustained economic progress.
The event was held at the Malaysian High Commission in Accra under the auspices of Mr Syed Nauzer Idid Bin Syed Yusoff Idid, Chargé d’Affaires.