Former President and former NDC flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, has intimated that urgent intervention is needed for what he describes as the crisis-ridden economy of Ghana.
The former President indicated that government must come up with plans on how to resolve the current economic state of the country.
“As a result of the horrendous low point the nation has now reached, it is very clear that urgent intervention is required to avert a total collapse of the economy.”
John Dramani Mahama
John Mahama stated that government must create a platform for urgent and constructive dialogue among stakeholders. This, he stated, should be done with the aim of fashioning out a robust set of policy responses to the economic challenges before the nation gets to the point of no return.
“We in the NDC stand prepared to aid in the salvage effort because inaction is not an option in the face of disaster. The clock is ticking very fast and the time to act is now.”
John Dramani Mahama
The former NDC flagbearer stated that there is no dispute that the Ghanaian economy is in deep crisis. The crisis, John Mahama described, as one 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.
Economy’s effect
John Mahama averred that the effects of the current economy has been severe hardships and suffering for the people of Ghana, especially those within vulnerable groups.
“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.”
John Dramani Mahama
According to Former President Mahama, government has banked all its hopes on the E-Levy, which, given the gravity and depth of the problems that have beset the economy, is neither adequate nor viable as a sustainable response to the crisis.
The former NDC flagbearer posited that in these face of serious crises, government has also resorted to unhelpful political posturing over suggestions on how to stem the downward spiral by ensuring discipline that will help the economy to recover.
“It is painfully obvious that beyond the ill-conceived E- Levy, the Akufo-Addo administration has no viable or credible plan of action to get us out of the current economic doldrums into which they have plunged us; meanwhile, there can be collective buy-ins from the Ghanaian people, development partners and the investor community that are being ignored.”
John Dramani Mahama
John Mahama questioned how government does not have a much needed Post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan that would lay down a firm blueprint for fiscal consolidation in the face of a worsening economic situation.
Gov’t must take cue from NDC
The Former NDC flagbearer suggested that government must as a matter of urgency, borrow a leaf from NDC’s sound approach toward the challenges it faced in 2015. He posited that the knowledge the NDC government got crystallized into its Homegrown Fiscal Consolidation Programme, which it eventually presented to the IMF for support.
“We immediately convened the Senchi Economic Forum at which we tapped the brains and expertise of a wide variety of knowledgeable people and stakeholders and built a consensus on our economic plan going forward.”
John Dramani Mahama
According to John Mahama, if not for the profligacy and also the reckless election related expenditure in 2020, which undermined all the progress that had been made, Ghana’s economy would not have taken the catastrophic nose-dive it has taken.
“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.”
John Dramani Mahama
John Mahama described as a pity how the NPP’s entire economic plan hinges on the passage of an E-levy expected to raise a little over Gh¢6 billion.
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