Former President John Mahama has called for a national dialogue to help salvage Ghana’s ailing economy.
Mr Mahama believes the national platform will bring together some of the country’s best brains together to find solutions to the economic challenges.
His comments are in relation to the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) recent downgrade of Ghana’s foreign and local credit ratings from B-B’ to CCC+C with a negative economic outlook.
S&P indicated the downgrade was due to intensifying financing and external pressures on the economy.
In a Facebook post, Mr Mahama said: “There appears to be no end to the problems with the Ghanaian economy, with the recent downgrade to CCC+/C junk status.”
To him, the Mid-Year budget review many thought will bring back investor confidence in the country’s economy did not.
The situation, he believes, is, therefore, a worrying situation and needs an immediate remedy.
Mr Mahama in 2021, while speaking at a lecture dubbed: ‘State of the Economy: the Score Card’, made a similar call.
During the event held at the Cedi Conference Centre of the University of Ghana in Accra, he called on the government to constitute a national forum on the economy to find lasting solutions to the country’s economic challenges.
He explained such consensus was demonstrated when his administration convened the Senchi Economic Forum, leading to the formulation of the Senchi Consensus.
Dr Gideon Boako, an aide to Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, however, shot down the calls, stating it will be a waste of time.
In his view, no effective policy decisions can be taken on such platforms, adding participants will only drag issues with no conclusion arrived at.