Professor of Finance at the University of Ghana Business School and Economist, Professor Godfred Bokpin, has cautioned the government against pursuing Ghana’s proposed membership of BRICS as a strategy to abandon its existing international partnerships or align itself exclusively with a particular political bloc.He said Ghana should approach its BRICS application as part of a broader foreign and economic policy strategy that allows the country to engage with different global economic powers while protecting its interests.Speaking on the Joy FM Super Morning Show on Thursday, October 8, during a discussion on Ghana’s quest to join BRICS, Prof Bokpin said the country needed to be clear about what it wanted to achieve from membership.“Joining BRICS necessarily should not be pursued as a substitution strategy for exiting other blocs or within other political leanings that we have,” he said.He said Ghana should recognise that although BRICS has become an important force in the global economy, the country still has other strategic partners whose interests must be considered.“We need to situate all of this within the broader foreign policy and economic policy that allows us to recognise that yes, BRICS is a dominant force, but there are other players also, and remember that there will also be a pushback from our traditional partners as well. They are equally watching,” he said.Prof Bokpin said the government should have a clear strategy covering the country’s objectives, limitations and the period within which it expected to achieve its goals from BRICS membership.“We need to be quite clear on what we allow, what we will not allow, what is the strategy within what transition period and all of that that we are working at and all of that,” he said.“So we need to engage with our eyes open. We need to make this application to join BRICS with our eyes open.”He cautioned that BRICS membership should not be viewed as a quick solution to Ghana’s economic challenges.“Remember that BRICS wasn’t just designed to transform our economy. The motives are quite clear, just like any other economic bloc that you want to join. It’s the same way,” he said.Prof Bokpin drew comparisons with Ghana’s participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), saying membership of a regional or international economic bloc did not automatically translate into economic benefits.He said Ghana’s ratification of the AfCFTA agreement did not, by itself, guarantee that Ghanaian businesses would become competitive across the continent.“In fact, when we started talking about African Continental Free Trade and all of that, it was quite clear to us that the fact that we are a member, we signed, we submitted our instrument of ratification, necessarily doesn’t mean that automatically we’ll benefit from the African Continental Free Trade,” he said.“There’s a lot that we have to do to make it even worse.”He said Ghana must first create an environment in which local businesses could compete successfully at home before expecting them to compete in international markets.“The fact that we are hosting the secretariat necessarily doesn’t mean we’ll host the gains emanating from the African Continental Free Trade. This is not a host win. You have to work hard. You have to create the enabling environment for your businesses to be able to compete even within Ghana,” he said.“You are talking about competing and winning within Ghana, then you can talk about competing and winning outside Ghana.”Prof Bokpin said one of the biggest challenges was that many Ghanaian businesses were struggling to compete with imported goods in the domestic market.“Even within Ghana, we are not able to compete and win against foreign imports,” he said.He pointed to Ghana’s inflation figures as an indication of the challenges facing local producers.“Look at our inflation dynamics today. Inflation is a domestic issue, okay? Inflation on locally produced is more higher than inflation on imported items,” he said.He said the situation sent the wrong signal to businesses considering whether to invest in local production.“What signal does this send to entrepreneurs?” he asked.“You are much better off actually importing and putting a local logo on it than setting up a production function in Ghana.”Prof Bokpin said that Ghana could not expect its businesses to compete successfully in international markets if they were unable to compete effectively within the domestic economy.“So even within Ghana here, we have not been able to enable our own firms to be able to compete and win in Ghana, let alone to win outside Ghana,” he said.“To win outside Ghana, you first have to win within Ghana. The Chinese are winning outside China because they have won in China.”He said Ghana therefore needed to build a strong domestic productive base before expecting local companies to take advantage of international trade opportunities.“So without creating that kind of backbone for your own firms to compete and win within, you cannot win without. It doesn’t happen that way,” he said.Prof Bokpin acknowledged the government’s efforts to stabilise the economy and said the next phase should focus more strongly on growth and productive investment.“I know that government is putting in a lot of measures and all of that in terms of recalibrating the economic framework,” he said.Prof Bokpin encouraged the Minister of Finance to use the expected fiscal space to tackle Ghana’s development challenges with greater urgency and scale.“And I want to encourage the Minister of Finance that this is the time for Ghana because we’ve created some fiscal space, and I believe that we need to act at scale and on time to be able to respond to the developmental challenges for us to be able to compete and win within and then we can think about winning without and all of that,” he said.“So I believe that there’s a lot that we have to do, and then we also have to explore collaboration with others as well,” Prof Bokpin added.His comments followed Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa’s indication that Ghana intends to submit an application to join BRICS as the government explores ways to diversify its international partnerships, expand economic opportunities and deepen cooperation with countries in the Global South.