Paul Adom-Otchere, host of Good Evening Ghana, has called for a change from rhetoric to long-term economic reforms, linking the ongoing xenophobic attacks on fellow African migrants in South Africa to more serious structural economic issues on the continent.
His remarks coincide with fresh accusations of xenophobic assaults and intimidation directed at foreigners in South Africa, raising diplomatic concerns and new demands for the safety of African immigrants residing there.
Speaking on Saturday, April 25, on Channel One TV’s The Big Issue, he contended that because African economies are still unevenly developed, people from poorer nations are compelled to look for chances in the continent’s more established economies.
He made similarities to the European Union, pointing out that larger economies there were able to support weaker member states through organised institutions, something he said Africa lacks because of poor economic coordination and competence.
Mr. Adom-Otchere also questioned why member nations continue to fall short of agreed-upon benchmarks for economic convergence, like as GDP levels and debt ratios, and attacked the protracted delay in completing the ECOWAS ECO single currency initiative.
“All of us are in an economic quagmire. So we can just appeal to South Africa and hope that something will happen whilst we hurriedly prepare the economic situation. In fact, the economic situation has already been recognized in West Africa.”
“We were talking about the ECO because we went far and came back and now recognised that look until we have an economic stabilisation, we are not going anywhere. It has been 30 years now, where is the ECO?”
He emphasised that West Africa runs the risk of constantly facing the same problems without finding long-term solutions in the absence of economic stabilisation and “real systems thinking.”
Source: newsthemegh.com