Professor of Statistics at KNUST, Atinuke Olusola Adebanji, has called on government leaders to ensure that economic policies created are data-driven and backed by data analytics.
According to the Professor, when economic policies are made without the needed data and analytics, there is a creation of disordinance in the economy and policies made are viewed as ‘guesswork’ policies.
She also added that the instrument of diagnoses for socio-economic problems is rooted in data analytics and statistics as they aid in tracking and identifying how policy changes affect economic alignment.
Professor Atinuke, therefore, called on the government to create policies backed by data analysis to effectively address social issues and give the public the needed information to understand the issues and what is needed to solve them.
“When policies are avoidant of concomitant data, it also sunders the buy-in of the people. People want to know what the diagnosis of the problem is, and what the cost of the treatment you are proposing is. If they do not understand, it can create more trouble like riots and conflict between the government and people, and we do not want that,” she stated.
She made this known at the second edition of the Financial Economic Seminar organized by the Financial Economics Institute Africa on the theme; ‘Impact of Socio-Economic Policies on Trade and Industries in Developing Economies.’
Managing Director for GCB Bank PLC, Kofi Adomako highlighted the need for African countries to elevate the role of trade and industrialization in their socio-economic structure and human capital to achieve sustainable development.
According to him, the development of trade and industrialization within the continent was anchored with sound financial systems to drive the growth agenda.
In a speech read on his behalf, Ga Mantse Tackie Teiko Tsuru II emphasized the importance of the seminar as the understanding of economics aids in good governance.
“When we hear of financial economics, then we think of governance therefore when there is no proper finance, there is no good economy,” he stated.