Tough Economic Lessons From Ghana

Friday, April 26, 2019 08:47AM
/ Op-Ed by Tope Fasua

Though I may have been to Ghana, Nigeria’s closest English-speaking
nation up to ten times now, there are always lessons to learn at each visit –
good and bad. I will start from the airport.

So we have opened our own version of Accra’s new international airport
in Abuja, and ours is much larger, one is usually touched by the serenity of
Kotoka Airport. The people of Ghana are just a touch better organized. Or are
they just slow? We shall look at that later. I needed to change some money into
their local currency and was referred to a money exchange in the same airport
building. The money exchange was manned by a single lady. The entire
environment had a relaxed corporate feel about it. For us here, we are
now scared of our own shadows. Also, though Ghana is as diversified culturally
as Nigeria, there were no stragglers around the airport asking if you wanted to
change dollars. There weren’t a horde of beggars and hustlers or street traders
at the airport too.

Lesson two, and still within the airport: As the taxi sought to exit the
airport, there was an electronic barrier on which the driver had to scan a
prepaid card. I asked how much they paid for parking, and it was around 20
Ghana Cedis per day (about N1,400). He said it was much higher for private cars
– at least 50 Ghana Cedis for two hours (about N3,500). Here in Nigeria – at
least Abuja that I use more frequently, private vehicles pay N200 or N300 to
park all day, and big men go for free, especially if they have a long convoy
with sirens. All cars with some government sticker on them also park for free.
That is part of why we have too many loafers around our airports. All sorts of
people who have no business there simply go to ‘hustle’ and source for unstructured
‘daily bread’ at the nation’s very gateway.

Let’s leave the airport. There is a surfeit of Daewoo Matiz (tiny cars)
in Accra. Most of the Uber cars in Accra are that small. Sometimes you get a
Rio or Corolla. Most of them have no air-conditioning and it seems that is not
a big deal for them there. A typical Nigerian will complain, about the heat and
the size of the car. There are a couple of lessons here. Each Daewoo Matiz car
costs about 19,000 Ghana Cedis or a little less than $4,000. This is like
N1.3million. But they are new, and effective. There are no ‘keke Napeps’ in
Accra. There were a few bikes used for transport in some rough suburbs but none
was noticed in the whole of Accra City. Because these small cars are purchased
new, Uber easily prequalifies them. There is a sense of contentment
and modesty about people here. Nigerians are very aspirational and nothing can
hold us down.

However, I am unsure if our insatiable craving for luxury when we
actually produce nothing will augur well in the near
future.  Nigerians love big things, but we are incapable of making
the smallest of things.  Anyhow, Keke Napeps go for as much as
N700,000 each in Nigeria, meaning that with the price of two, one could
purchase one these Daewoo cars. It must be a special arrangement they have
because things are expensive in Ghana but one cannot find any new car in
Nigeria for N1.4million. The cheapest Innoson car when I checked online, is
N7.6million. The smallest Kia here could be as much as N2.5million.  It
takes having a vision for a people to create this opportunities. However I
don’t think we should proliferate Keke Napeps in our cities and make them a
permanent feature in our future. I see small smart cars in the future of smart
cities full of smart people.

The neatness of Accra city is always touching. Nowhere did I see any
refuse dump on any road; not even in and around the notorious Makola Market. I
have been to some really bad ghettos around Accra, though I understand many of
them are now evacuated. I see a people that take themselves seriously. But it
wasn’t all rosy. I had cause to get to Kwame Nkrumah Circle, trying to make my
way – out of curiosity – to West Hills Mall Weija (which they claim is the
largest in West Africa). The total chaos at the roundabouts was quite annoying,
and after an hour we had to turn back. I felt that African leaders should begin
to subscribe to 100% performance in everything they do. Service Excellence
should be a state policy. Actually I humbly run an Institute so named
(Institute for Service Excellence and Good Governance), which tries to promote
these issues. The idea is that except you set service targets beyond 100% you
could never attain 90%. By not having any standards at all, sometimes service
falls to negative region.

African leaders need to implement things like Six Sigma performance
models in all spectra of governance. The fundamental mindset that must be
attained is to note that all human beings are important and are deserving of
excellent service, and that there is no excuse for perennial and perpetual
failure in any part of a system. There is a thick layer of classism and
discrimination running in our governments in Africa. We would rather create
things like VIP Lounges to try and patronize people who have money while
leaving the vast majority in the lurch. But we forget that we could get so much
more money from the international community if we treat our people like proper
human beings. Kwame Nkrumah Circle should be manned 24hours a day by traffic
controllers. I could say that what I saw there that day will not be permitted
even in Nigeria (apart from traffic created by churches at some times in the
month), because we complain a lot. We have youths in great numbers
in Africa. We should use them to organize our societies.

In the hotel where I stayed, there were elaborate brochures
detailing tourist sites in Ghana. Another brochure focused on investment
opportunities. These guys left nothing to chance. God help Nigeria. Even the
immigration form we completed was more practical, made of better, mat paper
material and looked more respectable. And it is still a wonder that even within
Africa , Nigeria is the only country where no one does any biometric capture of
visitors. In Ghana, your iris is scanned, and your fingerprints taken as you
enter and depart the country. This is the same in the African countries I have
been – Liberia, Rwanda, Zambia, Cote D’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Benin Republic, Egypt,
Uganda, Kenya. This biometric capture at the airport gives even visitors a
sense of security and seriousness. It’s a certainty that the
contracts would have been issued out here, with the proceeds ending up in the
foreign accounts of some oppressor. Ghana was organized and is trying to organize
more and more. They are targeting tourist money, business money, and of course
money-miss-road money.

What about the local products? I was shocked when I saw the packaging of
Zobo drink by one Mensdo Limited. They called it Bissap – from Hibiscus. The
packaging in glass bottles will sell the product anywhere in the world. That is
what we need in Africa. The palmwine product we found in a restaurant was less
well-packaged, but the product itself was wonderful. I doubt if one could find
palm wine in any upscale restaurant in Nigeria. Things like packaging requires
a certain presence of mind. One of our problems in Nigeria is that we put the
money first. Everyone is encouraged to get into entrepreneurship for no other
reason than to ‘hammer’. Someone wishing to simply ‘hammer’ is likely to let
slip on some quality issues. Yet I know that Nigerians appreciate quality when
we see one. I believe there are many things we should be innovating and pushing
to the world because we have the abilities to so do.

I am writing this travelogue for two reasons. The first one is to
address a viral message about Ghana moving into a production-driven economy as
against a tax-driven one. This was the theme of Ghana’s 2017 budget actually,
but it’s only half true. In the first place, one should ask if we
cannot walk and chew gum at the same time. Can we not have an efficient tax system
AND also drive productivity? If taxes were well used, infrastructure will
develop rapidly and businesses, production, and productivity, will certainly
thrive. The second reason is to compare our two countries and see what can be
learnt from one another.

Ghana is, and has always been a high tax environment. As regards their
VAT, in 2017 they ‘reduced’ the 17.5% rate for small businesses to 3% Flat rate
in what is known as the VAT Flat Rate System (VFRS). The idea is to make tax
collection more effective and to jack many little businesses into the tax net.
Many small businesses who never filed VAT are now forced to pay the 3%
flat. The idea is certainly not to reduce government tax revenue,
but to increase it. The focus of the so-called reduction is on retailers.
Manufacturers still pay at 17.5%. The sophistication of tax administration in
Ghana tells us it is a high tax system anyway. The 17.5% is usually
administered on a net basis. What do I mean? Every business keeps records of
VAT paid during the year, and backs this out from VAT received. The government
gets the net. With this new 3% flat rate, the government is not interested in
entertaining any deductions. Every retailer simply pays government 3%, no
begging. It’s more like a sales tax. Nigeria’s 5% VAT is often a Sales Tax too,
as most people do not know that they should back out input VAT. The FIRS takes
5% on sales from many SMEs every month. Only large companies try to deduct the
VATs they paid in the course of their business.

Meanwhile at Buka Restaurant in Osu where we once had lunch, the final
bill came with the following taxes; 1% Tourism Levy, 2.5% GETFUND (Ghana
Education Tax Fund), 2.5% NHIL (National Health Insurance Levy), and 12.5% VAT.
This is 18.5% in all. Please don’t believe the hype. I imagine
Nigerians will hit the roof if half of these kind of taxes were introduced at
our retail level. The usual complaint is that government mismanages what they
collect. While this is true, we must be careful not to be moving round and
round in circles. Chicken and egg. Which one goes first? There is also
corruption in Ghana even if not at the level of what we have here. The elites
and middle-class especially should stop demanding for things from government
before paying their taxes – or paying their dues to society. Our country
is ours to build. Someone must bell the cat. I will want to say that I believe
Ghanaians are overtaxed and beaten down though. The tax system has made
everything very expensive and I don’t see their indigenous entrepreneurs
thriving. Nigeria is however too free, too cheap, too disorganized, too deluded
about its oil wealth and too wayward. We need to meet somewhere in the middle. The
other day I stated that the VAIDS program was too early. We need some serious
enforcement, discipline and education first, sustained over a period of time,
before we introduce voluntary compliance and offer people
‘get-out-of-jail-free’ cards.

Meanwhile petrol sells for one dollar per litre. That is 5.18 Ghana
Cedis or N360 per litre. This is however not an excuse to justify the frauds,
inefficiencies and corruption that we have suffered in the hands of our
leadership here. The subsidy idea has been all too fraudulent anyway but that
is a talk for another day. I have maintained that Nigeria’s budgets are too
small and that we can generate multiples of our current
revenues. For instance a car tax was introduced recently in Ghana
which mandates taxes as follows under the Luxury Vehicle Act, 2018 (Act 969), : vehicles with engine capacity
ranging from 2.9L to 3.0L are charged GH¢1,000 (N70,000 equivalent yearly);
capacities ranging from 3.5L to 4.0L are charged GH¢1,500 (N105,000 yearly),
while vehicles with engine capacity of 4.5L and above are levied GH¢2000
(N140,000 yearly. Nigerians will riot if this happens. We too dey flex.

Also, I believe Nigeria can easily generate a lot of money from areas
such as excise duties (cigarettes and alcohol are probably cheapest in Nigeria
than anywhere else on earth), property taxes, capital gains taxes, inheritance
taxes and a raft of existing levies, duties, fees, fines, rents, rates, which
are mostly ignored in Nigeria simply because our leaders are not ready to lead
by example, and they have an anti-collective development mindset which they
have infected the rest of us with.

Come back with me to Kotoka International Airport. The other day it was
Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde who complained that it took N72 to buy one Ghana Cedi.
Just like the illusion of our new N30,000 minimum wage which is equal to $82 at
the current exchange rate of N360, when N18,000 was once equal to $150 (when
exchange rate was N120), the ‘strong’ exchange rate of the Ghana Cedi is a great
illusion today. Ghana cannot be used as a lightning rod example of how to run
an economy because the country still has many of its own problems. The old
currency was 9400 to one Dollar when they redenominated in 2007 by removing 4
zeros. The new Ghana Cedi became 0.94 to one US Dollar, thereby becoming
‘stronger’ than the dollar. Since then it’s been a one-way devaluation traffic
that has no end. Today the Ghana Cedi is 5.18 to the Dollar. In other words,
the currency has devalued from 9,400 for one Dollar in 2007, to 51,800 to the
same Dollar in 2019! Forget redenomination. I wish this government luck though
because it seems to listen to the worst advise.

One last thing at the airport. At the gate, one is approached by a nice
lady, Rahmatu, whose parents hail from Tamale in Northern Region of
Ghana. I’ve always wondered about how Ghana’s north to south seem
better integrated than Nigeria’s north and south. John Mahama is from the north
of Ghana. The way Ghanaians speak you will never guess that there were
different indigenous languages in that country. Anyhow, Rahmatu’s duty today is
to administer a detailed questionnaire on the experience of every foreigner who
visited Ghana. The questions were businesslike and targeted. I took pictures of
each page. I wondered what it is they do at NTDC or Ministry of Culture and
Tourism. I hear we scrapped the ministry of tourism. Meanwhile Kotoka
International Airport Free WiFi is one of the fastest in the world. The airport
sitting area is very friendly and they obviously planned it with the comfort of
passengers in mind.

So much to learn and unlearn. I think Nigeria will do well to study
Ghana’s more strategic approach at development, even though we should continue
to encourage our youths to dare. We should however reduce the focus on money
for money’s sake. We should be more systematic in our revenue drive. Every can
of drink sold in Ghana had a tax stamp on top (in QR codes). Retail items
cannot be sold without this code, and penalties for noncompliance is steep. So
long as Ghana is more responsible around its spending, that country may emerge
before Nigeria into a proper developing country. With their parliamentary
system of government combined with an executive president who is not an MP, I
see this country moving fast at some point. They should however ensure the
indigenous people are empowered else the Chinese, Lebanese and Europeans will
keep cleaning out the country. My fear though is that Ghana is like UK’s
guinea-pig in Africa. Everything they do in UK is often replicated in Ghana.
Even personal income tax rate was increased to 35% for people earning a mere
10,000 Ghana Cedis (about N700,000 monthly). In Nigeria, our personal income
tax has an upper band of 24% the last time I checked. While this
means a very frugal, tax-driven society, there is a need to think about the
poorest and most disadvantaged Ghanaian. As for Nigeria, I hope our luck
continues to hold up. There is a reason many are relocating from here to other
countries and a lot of that has to do with governance or lack of it.

Tough Economic Lessons From Ghana

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