Former President John Dramani Mahama has reiterated that Ghana’s current economic situation must be largely attributed to mismanagement and not the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ghana’s economy is going through turbulent times as it is plagued with a number of challenges, including rising inflation and the rising cost of fuel.
The country’s currency is also suffering depreciation, especially against the US dollar, while the public debt level has attained an unsustainable level.
The Akufo-Addo administration has blamed the economic meltdown on a multiplicity of factors, including the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine.
But former President Mahama believes the state of the economy has little to do with the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to him, huge borrowing, reckless spending among others gave the economy a negative outlook even before the pandemic.
Mr. Mahama, who was speaking at the African Business Conference at the Harvard Business School in the United States of America, said government went into the COVID-19 fight without a buffer.
“The pandemic has generally affected the economies of African nations, but some countries have sailed through more successfully than others due to the resilience of their economies, discipline and prudent use of their resources.”
”In my country Ghana, however, our economy is doing badly. Ballooning deficits, double digit inflation, among others are some of the symptoms of a very ill economy. Unbridled borrowing from the capital markets, creating budget deficits. Ghana went into the pandemic without adequate buffers,” he added.
Measures taken by government to revive economy
The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta on Thursday announced measures taken by the government to revive the economy which is suffering several challenges including inflation, depreciation of the cedi, difficulties in payment of debts among others.
He highlighted twelve points for cutting down public expenditure including a moratorium on the purchase of imported vehicles and foreign travels by public officials.
He also indicated plans to generate more revenue including impressing on parliament to pass the E-levy.
Mr. Ofori-Atta also indicated plans to inject $2 billion into the economy in the next 2 to 6 weeks.
For the Minority leader however, these plans are not in any way meant to be in the the interest of the ordinary Ghanaian.
