Nana Yaa Akyempem Jantuah, General Secretary of the CPP, has stated that there should be certainty and assurance about the dismissal of the finance minister even though the supporters are being told to remain calm about the issue.
According to her, the situation can be dealt with in any way, and the finance minister could be considered and kept in office depending on how the negotiations with the IMF goes.
“Maybe when he comes back from the dealings with the IMF, they might consider him as the best and decide to make him stay, but I am surprised that the President said they should allow him to finish with the negotiations. Why, is the IMF in only his DNA? Can’t someone else lead the IMF negotiations?”
Nana Yaa Akyempem Jantuah
Nana Yaa Akyempem Jantuah further questioned the process of the negotiations and asked that the finance minister be impeached since that is the demand of the people, adding that the President has walked in the path of politics for a while and he should know the difference between competence and loyalty.
She said the IMF managed the finances of the country and instilled fiscal discipline when the country was in difficulties but that could not be sustained.
“The IMF is teaching you what to do; fiscal discipline. They teach us how to spend money and when we leave the hands of the IMF, there will be some growth. But after a certain time, there was carelessness and recklessness, we spent and borrowed money anyhow and there was no one to stop us.’’
Nana Yaa Akyempem Jantuah
She stated that the majority members of parliament were very specific about the removal of the finance minister, and they asked that no government business be brought to the house until the finance minister has been dismissed.
Ofori-Atta must go because of the cedi’s depreciation
Due to the current poor performance of the cedi, Bernard Anim Piesie, a member of the NDC’s Communications team, also supported calls that the finance minister must go. He said that Ken Ofori-Atta must be sacked from office because the cedi ranks as the worst performing currency worldwide.
Aside this issue, he said that the country has been involved in a lot of borrowing under the government of Nana Akuffo Addo than any other government since the time of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
“From President Nkrumah to Mahama’s time, the amount of money borrowed was 120.3 billion cedis. Currently under Nana Akuffo Addo, our total debt stock when put together gives us a total of about GHS540 billion. He has added over 300 billion cedi to the debt.”
Bernard Anim Piesie
According to him, there is no evidence of how this money was used to boost economic growth therefore, the President has “spent” the money. Mr. Bernard stated that he heard rumors about the foreign reserve being depleted. He added that there was around 9 billion dollars in the reserve when the year began but currently, there might not be up to 2 million dollars in the reserve.
He spoke about the current issue of inflation and explained that the debt to GDP ratio of the country was over 104%, making it impossible for the country to pay off its debts without taking loans.
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