In response to the just-ended National Economic Dialogue 2025 (NED), Financial analyst Kudzo Akpabey has candidly expressed the expected impact of the forum, stating that the country needs to “change course” from “theory” to achieve true fiscal and economic independence.
Despite being the first National Economic Dialogue held in over ten years, Akpabey has described the recent forum as repeating old rhetoric in pursuit of practices that won’t yield different results.
According to the financial analyst, the communique from the National Economic Dialogue failed to present fresh and groundbreaking discourse peculiar to Ghana’s economic challenges and needs.
From his attentiveness of the President’s State Of the Nation Address (SONA) to the entirety of the National Economic Dialogue, Akpabey observed parallels between the actions of past governments and the new.
“I realized that we’ve been doing the same thing over and over again,” he complained, further revealing that his time in the USA first awakened him to this truth.
He further banked the credibility of his observation and subsequent recommendations on his years of experience in the finance industry.
“I’ve been involved with the SFO”, he recounted, flexing his fiscal knowledge from serving in the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
Established by an act of parliament in 1993, the SFO is responsible for investigating and prosecuting economic crimes and serious financial loss to the state. It also monitors the management practices of public institutions for accountability.
“I understand the system. It has been a failure of economic and fiscal policies over the years,” he testified to Ghana’s economic trajectory.
A Nod to NED
Before proceeding to faults found with the dialogue, Akpabey acknowledged the competencies of Dr. Ishmael Yamson, Chairman of the 2025 National Economic Dialogue Planning Committee.
“Thank God for the life of Doctor Ishmael Yamson, he has paid his dues. When I was a boy he was with Unilever – but I think we are in the twenty-first century and we need brains in technology, especially manufacturing technology”
Kudzo Akpabey, Financial Analyst
Despite the need for macroeconomic stability and regaining confidence in the economy, Akpabey suggested the endless pursuit of policies, reforms, and resets, were a deviation by the government from modern economic principles worldwide.
The New Course
Economic conversations that solely revolve around restoring or strengthening the value of “paper money,” as he referred to the currency, limit economic interventions to the fiscal and monetary space and eventually fail.
Drawing parallels between President Mahama and Donald Trump of the USA, presidents who have both been “there” once and given the second chance to do things differently, Akpabey challenged President Mahama to rise to the occasion.
He cautioned against adopting shoddy economic strategies based on weak theories for the sake of “paper money”. He warned against repeating Ghana’s financial crisis of 2008.
“Printing money, cutting money, is no longer modern, it’s not monetary and it’s not theory,” he stressed, citing the failure by nations like the US, Europe, Germany, France and Canada to save their economies by such practices.
“Even the US dollar, the world’s reserve currency, is having challenges so if you look at Trump, he’s changed everything,” he added, calling for the implementation of more realistic and proactive measures in Ghana.
Per his recommendation, the nation should resort to more concrete-based solutions like manufacturing and industrialization, which would ultimately have a positive ripple effect on its currency.
“I’m in the US. I’ve been involved in all the discussions and the decisions being taken by Make America Great Again (MAGA) and I’m saying that all the monetary and fiscal policies there have been a failure, there, and in Europe.
“The major economies are all in trouble; UK, Germany, France, Canada, so we need to change course”
Kudzo Akpabey, Financial Analyst
Akpabey set out to understand the fundamental differences between President Mahama’s resetting agenda, which he called “Mahama-nomics” and that of former Vice-President Bawumia, which he dubbed “Bawumia-nomics”.
According to the analyst, national economic directions and agendas belong to presidents and sometimes their vice presidents, not finance ministers.
To this end, he revealed that an official enquiry has been made to the office of the President. His goal is to establish a point: Ghana has been talking about “macro and micro” theory enough, it’s time to change course to avoid an even worse financial crisis.
