An Economist, Dr. Lord Mensah, says Ghana ought to be concerned about the #EndSARS protest ongoing in Nigeria as he believes its ripple effect can have negative consequences on the Ghanaian economy.
Dr. Lord Mensah insists that if the protest escalates, Ghana should expect to see an influx of Nigerians as it is a major anglophone country for Nigerians.
“If you look at the recent money laundering ban that we had, it is mainly because of the influx of Nigerians operating in that space who are now in Ghana. So if it ( the #ENDSARS Protest) continues, the tendencies that it will spill over to our part of the region is very, very high. Remember that if you look at Nigeria’s boundaries its mainly French speaking countries. They are like Ghana, that is why anytime they move from their country to the east side of their direction, they come to Ghana because they will not be comfortable in Benin or Togo because of language barrier, so they move straight to Ghana.”
He added that, “ If it continues, we are going to have a lot of Nigerians moving to Ghana and we don’t have the capacity to absorb them as we speak now. Look at their size, it’s a big country, so if it continues, we are going to have a lot of spill overs and effectively it can affect other economies within the subregion.”
The protest, which has been ongoing for the past two weeks was quite peaceful until soldiers on Tuesday night opened fire on some of the protestors killing and injuring a number of them.
Ghana’s finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, had earlier expressed similar apprehensions describing the current disturbances in neighboring Nigeria as worrying.
In an interview with the BBC, the Finance Minister said happenings in that country could impact Ghana’s economy as well; hence the need for the situation to be contained and managed.
