Nhyieaso Member of Parliament, Dr Stephen Amoah has told Former President John Dramani Mahama that no one is disputing the fact that Ghana, just as any other country around the globe, is going through some economic challenges at the moment.
Dr Amoah said countries including the United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK) are all having their share of the economic challenges therefore, Ghana’s situation is not different.
Even in the midst of the economic challenges, he said, there are still some of Ghana’s economic indicators such as the lending rate, still better than what was bequeathed to the Akufo-Addo-led government by Mr Mahama.
“Nobody disputes the fact that Ghana, just like any other country around the globe is going through some sort of hardships and economic crisis. I think we should look at other places if this is not true. For about forty years now, US is experiencing the highest inflationary rate, UK moved from 1 to 4, which is about 200 per cent. So we need to analyze all these things in the context that we are talking about then we can do proper trend or comparative analyses. We even have some of the economic parameters still doing far better than what we took over.
“So, I think the former President, as much as he is actually saying what is prevailing in terms of hardships in the system, which that one I agree, he is rather doing politics more than trying to analyze issues in the right context and offer better alternative. If you go this way then we will all move beyond probably our professional ethics and performance. Even today that policy rate has been increased by about 250 basis points, it is still far lower than what we took over, lending rate is still far lower than what we took over. The economy has met uncontrollable global factors, this is a fact.
“If you have an economy that went through over 22 months of impaired productivity which is not your fault, is it government’s fault that restaurants and shops had to close down? I don’t think it was our fault that private sector had to sack about over forty thousand workers, I don’t think it is the fault of this government that fuel prices moved all-time high, these are major issues around the globe. Under Mahama we didn’t have these problems with these same causative factors, no but what happened? We had lending rate moving to about forty percent” he told Accra based Joy FM on Monday March 21.
The former Chief Executive Officer of the Micro Finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) was reacting to a comment made by Mr Mahama to the effect that the Akufo-Addo administration has badly managed the economy.
Mr described the policies introduced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as short-sighted, populist, ad hoc and poorly conceived.
He said these while speaking at the launch of an App for the Tertiary Educational Institutions Network TEIN of the National Democratic Congress NDC, held at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) Auditorium in Accra on Monday March 21.
He said “hardship in the country has led the nation to a scale we have never witnessed in the last 30-years of our fourth republic.
“Daily price increases, fuel price adjustments and nose-diving currency which has rather arrested the person who said he had arrested it. The dollar has rather arrested him. So we are looking for him we can’t find him. We will ask the IGP if he has the key so that we could find where our Vice President was.”
“We are gathered at the time when our country is facing economic and social hardship. The Akufo-Addo led government that came to power on the back of mouth-watering promises to make life better for Ghanaians and ensure rapid development of our country has so badly mismanaged the economy. We have been plunged into the most debilitating economic crisis in our four decades,” Mr Mahama added.
He further indicated that “General incompetence, corruption, and waste of scarce resources have combined to make lives simply unbearable for the generality of Ghanaians. No group is perhaps harder hit than the young people of this country. The issues that affect the youth of Ghana who dominate our population are many and in these times of severe economic downturn, they have inevitably been worse off than perhaps any other demographic group in Ghana.
“The government has been so poor in its policy making and delivery in education that at all levels from basic through secondary, right up to tertiary, the students of Ghana are suffering immeasurably.
“Non-release of funds , poor management of curricula, erratic school calendars. Ghana is currently experiencing the highest level of unemployment recorded in the fourth republic, at an estimated 14 per cent.
“This government’s response has been the adoption of short-sighted, populist, ad hoc and poorly conceived programmes that have done more harm than good. Even those enrolled on the knee-jerk NABCO programme have found themselves at home after three years and have remained unpaid for several months.”
Source:|3news.com|Ghana