Minister for parliamentary affairs, honorable Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu on Friday, October 15, 2021, has said that Ghana’s economy has been obstructed due to the global pandemic. The minister said this during his engagement with the media on the theme, “Economic Revitalization amid Covid-19 Pandemic: The Media’s agenda.” This engagement is aimed at deepening democratic governance therefore the media will be the best tool.
According to him, the pandemic has had an overwhelming effect on the country’s population. ” It is a worry to note that production and distribution have been impacted by the reduced workforce during the lockdown conditions and restricted movement whiles consumers spend more on healthcare and food. These dynamics have caused significant downturns in the economic sector”, He said.
He continued that prices of goods and services have gone high due to being heavily dependent on raw materials imported from outside the country. This is because duties are added on by Covid-19 taxes which has raise prices up. According to him, between December 2019 and August 2021, charges have gone up of which some of the commodities have an average of ninety percent increment.
Commodities such as ” fridge charges gave gone up on average of ninety percent that is importing items, that is not to talk about other variables”.
The minister made a comparison with other countries that are facing similar problems in terms of inflation. “Do you know, recently what is happening in the UK? Shortages of fuel. In Europe, they are experiencing a shortage of gas. From Russia, production has significantly reduced. Production of iron and steel has reduced, demand has risen, and indeed is climbing up. So you see the price height of iron rods and steel products have weak others”. He uttered.
The honorable minister added that as a result of this circumstance that the government strategized plans and policies that will help the citizenry manage their plight. Some of these programs are free water, electricity subsidies, and other interventions during the pandemic period. However, the government introduced the Ghana Cares Obaatanpa program to help revive small, micro, and medium enterprises or businesses.
Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu further noted that the media comes to be very suitable when it comes to development. This is because they provide information, promote commercials, developing agreements when reporting national issues and even draw out to the citizenry the numerous obstacles during the process of development. Regardless of this,” the media impose government responsiveness by giving voice to the vulnerable. There is a healthy nexus between goals and government responsibility. The media that give voice to the vulnerable can create inform skills that can better monitor the actions of their teaches and use this information in their voting decision”, he added.
He urged the media to support actions at revitalizing the economy where they will provide enough space for policies using several opinions and information that can be trusted. To boost the economy of Ghana, the media in Ghana can join forces with stakeholders who will help facilitate businesses, transmits ideas and inventions.
“It is the realization of the essential role of the media that ministry decided to bring in media oppo professionals in Ghana to enable us harvest ideas on media’s agenda to promote policies and programs that do not only rich the economy much more important transform it for the benefit of our people”. He explained.
Thus, the honorable minister is urging the media to make use of platforms to be able to inform the public to understand the good plans of government so that revenue levels and national development will benefit the people in the country. Also “the media has the responsibility to support government transmit good policies into development while adhering to their norms and codes of their profession.
Hon. Osei Mensah again said that the media space only repeats stories and reportage which normally leads to stereotyping therefore always the old ideas are generated. According to him, the media uses the same faces always, and ” those people pretend to know from A-Z of every subject matter and often end up polluting the environment”. His concern is that the media should fish out credible people who are from universities to be able to have a dialogue with them on matters of the economy.
He encouraged that the media to use experts in their various fields on related matters, but they should not end up calling people who don’t belong to the subject matter but talk to them. To him, the same faces, voices, and writers must be avoided and continue to open doors for different faces, writers, and voices. He stated that as media practitioners, whatever step you take you must do serious inspections to be able to protect and preserve the fundamental human right of the citizens and also put on all the journalistic skills as media practitioners and not harm society at large.
The minister concluded by saying that, media will put into action what has been communicated so that ideas developed will enhance the quality of information that will be needed for national policies and programs. The honorable minister added that the budget statement of the economy of the government will be delivered on November 17, 2021, that everyone should take note of.
Site Title 
1 Comment