Deputy Ranking Member of the Finance Committee, Dr. Gideon Boako, has stated that the 2025 Budget presentation proves that the economy inherited by the current government was not in a “sick state” as previously claimed.
He pointed out that despite assertions by the NDC that the economy was in a coma, it recorded 5.7% growth, adding that “never in the history of this country has any government left with such figures.”
“What actually happened today is a vindication of the fact that the government that this administration inherited did not leave the economy in a sick state. As of today, the Finance Minister has been forced to speak to the data by suggesting that the economy grew by 5.7%,” Dr. Boako said in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story on March 11.
On the issue of the national debt, Dr. Boako criticised the Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, for presenting what he says were figures that the Minister later admitted were yet to be audited.
“Did you hear the Finance Minister, after mentioning all these debts, come to say that they are yet to audit those figures? How can the Finance Minister of a country like Ghana go to Parliament to present figures that are not audited, that cannot be found within the government system of this country? This is scandalous. It doesn’t happen anywhere,” he argued.
The Tano MP also questioned why the Finance Minister avoided stating the debt-to-GDP ratio, suggesting it would contradict the government’s narrative.
“When it came to the overall gross public debt, you realize that he couldn’t add all of this to the debt stock but rather mentioned the figure recorded by the Bank of Ghana and the IMF in December 2024. That is why he smartly never mentioned the debt-to-GDP ratio—because he realised that it defeats the lies he was trying to put across,” he explained.
He acknowledged that the previous government left behind some debt but insisted that it was a normal occurrence in governance.
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