Professor of Finance at the University of Ghana, Prof. Godfred Bokpin, has urged the government to apologise to Ghanaians for failing to manage the economy.
In an interview on Joy FM’s Newsnight on Monday, July 29, he stated, “Every serious person in the NPP should be humble enough and say to Ghanaians ‘we are sorry'”.
This, he explained, is because the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration is capable and represented a hope for Ghana’s democracy in 2016.
“The resources that this current government presided over in terms of tax revenue from oil together with the level of borrowing, this government should tell Ghanaians ‘we are sorry'”, he added.
He acknowledged that no government under the Fourth Republic can claim to be without any faults regarding borrowing.
However, he pointed out that the situation has significantly worsened under the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government.
“There is none holy; no, not one,” he added.
His comments come on the back of a former Deputy Finance Minister and NPP Member of Parliament for Obuasi West in the Ashanti Region, Kwaku Kwarteng likening the management of Ghana’s economy to a ponzi scheme.
- According to him, the current economic challenges at both national and household levels stem from decades of poor governance, marked by political mismanagement and economic inefficiency across various administrations.
Mr Kwarteng made these comments in a statement issued on Thursday, July 25, captioned “To break the eight, we must first break the norm”, in what looks like a direct piece of advice to his party the governing NPP, and by extension all political parties.
However, the Deputy General Secretary of the NPP, Haruna Mohammed asserts that the party’s track record in managing the economy speaks for itself.
He argued that the NPP has effectively handled the economy, even in the face of significant challenges such as COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war, which have the potential to cripple the economy.
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“It is very clear that this government has managed the economy very well to the period that there was economic crisis.
“Even in the world performance stage, countries were recording negatives …but we grew about 25%.”