A former Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, Gabby Otchere Darko, has reacted to a comment by Former President John Dramani Mahama to the effect that the economy is in crisis.
Mr Mahama had blamed the challenges that the economy is going through at the moment on election related spending by the Akufo-Addo administration.
He accused the government of profligacy and also recklessness as far as election-related expenditure in 2020 is concerned
In a statement, the Presidential Candidate of the NDC in the 2020 elections said “There is no dispute that the Ghanaian economy is in deep crisis, a crisis marked by huge budget deficits, an unsustainable public debt, rising inflation, a rapidly depreciating currency, ever rising cost of living and a loss of confidence by both domestic and international investor communities.
“Yet, President Nana Akufo-Addo and his Head of the Economic Management Team, rather appallingly, remain nonchalant in the face of this serious crisis and have limited their response to the imposition of very harsh and regressive tax measures, one of which is the E-Levy, which has been roundly rejected by the people of Ghana.
“Like one drowning and yet clutching at mere straw to stay afloat, this government has banked all its hopes on the E-Levy, which, given the gravity and depth of the problems that have beset our economy, is neither adequate nor viable as a sustainable response to the crisis.
In the face of this serious crisis, government has also resorted to unhelpful political posturing over suggestions on how to stem the downward spiral, ensure discipline and help the economy to recover.
“The knowledge shared at Senchi crystallized into our Homegrown Fiscal Consolidation Programme, which we eventually presented to the IMF for support. The IMF agreed entirely with our homegrown strategy whose implementation restored stability to the economy and laid the strong foundations that this government, just as the World Bank in 2016 forecasted, profited from between 2017 and 2020.
“But for the profligacy and also the reckless election related expenditure in 2020, which undermined all the progress that had been made, our economy would not have taken the catastrophic nose-dive it has taken and left us all reeling under hardship. The Akufo-Addo administration in 2020/21 received and misapplied the largest windfall or bailout in Ghana’s history: a $1 billion concessional facility from the IMF, another $1 billion in SDR allocation, $430 million from the World Bank, $250 million from the Stabilization Fund, Gh¢10 billion from the Central Bank. This amounted to a total of about Gh¢33 billion.”
But in a tweet responding to him, Mr Otchere Darko said “Listening to John Mahama preach on the economy is like hearing a stammerer (apologies to stammerers), not only boldly criticising @sarkodie’s rap, but trying to convince music lovers that @sarkodie must learn to learn how to verbalise from him, the stutterer.”
He added “JM’s Teachings: ‘Government must as a matter of urgency, borrow a leaf from our sound approach toward the challenges we faced in 2015. We immediately convened the Senchi Economic Forum…’ His ‘home-grown’ policies to his home-grown problems led us to the IMF for IMF solutions.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana