The Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party, Richard Ahiagbah, has challenged the government’s economic recovery narrative, arguing that official figures have yet to translate into meaningful relief for households and businesses.
Mr Ahiagbah questioned the decision to pursue fiscal discipline through spending restrictions while social protection and payments to contractors remain under pressure. He argued that the approach risks weakening the very people and businesses that require support during an economic recovery.
According to the NPP Communications Director, expenditure control can only serve its purpose when essential areas of public spending remain protected. He therefore criticised the reduction of social protection spending while other government commitments continue to attract funding.
“If the poor are supposed to bear the brunt of your discipline, then you are mostly just ravaging society.”
Richard Ahiagbah
The Director of Communications also pointed to the difficulties facing contractors who remain unpaid for completed work. He explained that delayed payments have affected the ability of contractors to deliver projects while also restricting money circulating within the local economy.
Turning to the construction sector, Mr Ahiagbah mentioned the Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwame Agbodza, as one of the ministers whose work could expand significantly if capital expenditure and contractor payments improved. He added that government’s failure to settle outstanding obligations was affecting businesses connected to public projects.
The argument extended to the government’s growth figures, which Mr Ahiagbah questioned on the basis of their impact on employment and household incomes. He challenged the presentation of the 6.4 percent growth figure as evidence of a widely shared economic recovery.
For him, the central issue is the source of the growth and the number of jobs being created. He linked the performance to illegal mining activity and argued that an economy can record expansion without producing sufficient employment or improving the circumstances of ordinary citizens.
On The Basis Of Experience At Home
Mr Ahiagbah also challenged the government’s stability narrative by pointing to renewed pressure on the prices of goods and services. He referred to rising services inflation, increasing transport costs and higher food inflation as indicators of the pressures still facing households.
The figures, he argued, must therefore be tested against daily economic activity. A reduction in headline inflation does little for a household if transport, food and other essential costs continue to rise.
“There’s a great disconnect between what government, led by the Finance Minister, is presenting to us on paper versus what we are experiencing in our homes.”
Richard Ahiagbah
The NPP communicator also argued that voters ultimately judge economic performance through their own experiences. In his view, those experiences include whether people can sell their goods, maintain their businesses, find work and meet the rising cost of living.
That argument places the government’s Mid-Year Budget Review under a different form of scrutiny. The Finance Minister may present stronger growth, improved fiscal figures and other signs of macroeconomic stability, yet the political value of those figures depends on whether citizens recognise the improvement in their own lives.
For Mr Ahiagbah, the economy cannot be assessed through official indicators alone. He argued that the government must also account for the conditions faced by market traders, contractors, workers and families.
In the view of the NPP Director of Communications, the government’s fiscal strategy is placing too much emphasis on restricting expenditure. He argued that such a strategy could weaken economic activity if it prevents money from reaching businesses and households.
The criticism also touches on the government’s broader recovery strategy. Ahiagbah argued that fiscal discipline must produce a stronger economy for citizens, with public spending directed towards areas capable of supporting livelihoods and economic activity.
Market Activity Raises Questions About Economic Recovery
The condition of local businesses has become a central measure in the debate over Ghana’s economic performance. Richard Ahiagbah has therefore called for official economic figures to be tested against the experiences of market traders and other people operating within the informal economy.
The NPP Communications Director referred to footage from Makola Market, where traders spoke about falling sales, reduced purchasing power and difficulties keeping their businesses alive. He argued that such accounts provide an important view of economic activity beyond government statistics.
Mr Ahiagbah urged analysts and policymakers to place those experiences alongside every major economic figure presented by the government. In his view, the experiences of traders provide an independent account of whether economic activity is reaching ordinary people.
The argument draws attention about the relationship between macroeconomic indicators and household welfare. A country can record growth while businesses struggle if the expansion is concentrated in sectors that employ few people or generate limited opportunities for the wider population.
For that reason, the NPP communicator argued that the government must stimulate economic activity alongside its fiscal consolidation programme. He emphasised that expenditure controls should not prevent money from reaching productive sectors of the economy.
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