They cautioned that corruption could scare investors away from the country and leadership must tackle the canker with all the seriousness it deserves. 

The two people are Professor David Abdullai, Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the African Graduate School of Management and LeadershipandKweku Ricketts-Hagan, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cape Coast South in the Central Region.

“We need to educate our people for them to know that it affects the economy because if investors have that perception about our country the investment drive will slacken due to corruption-related issues,” he intimated.

Their comments come after Ghana failed to make progress in its fight against corruption as stated in the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released by Transparency International (TI) which scored Ghana 43 out of possible score of 100 and ranked the country 73 out of 180 countries/territories included in the 2021 index.

Prof. Abdullai bemoaned that the country’s current performance was still below 50 which was the expected average and thus leaves much to be desired since trend analysis of Ghana’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) scored over the past decade showed the country declined by 2 points.

He said the CPI score indicated Ghana failed to make progress in the fight against corruption in the year 2021 as the score of 43 was the same as the 2020 score adding that “there is the need for drastic measures to reduce corruption in the country because corruption scares investors away from any country so it must be tackled with all seriousness.

According to Mr Richetts-Hagan, the fight against corruption in the country should commence with the leadership because it must show commitment, dedication and determination in the fight against corruption.

He insisted that it was commitment at the leadership level that would ensure Ghana was able to nip the menace in the bud which should start with leadership “if leadership is ready to fight and they mean it, that will change the status quo”.