Ghanaian political analyst, Yaw Tano has stated on a panel discussion that the governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, is a major contributor to the downfall of the economy since he was appointed into office. He indicated that, since the governor oversees the affairs of the bank, it his partly his fault that the country’s economic state is dire because of the inefficiency in his work, considering how important the BoG is as the central bank of the state and its importance to the economy.
Mr. Tano explained that money circulates in the country through the Bank of Ghana, and that they [the BoG] know the amount of money that has been pumped into the system. He noted that the Bank of Ghana has a fair idea of the amount of money that has been circulated in the country. However, he stated that goods and services were now expensive, and the Bank of Ghana wants to find a way of mopping up all the money they circulated back into the bank.
“I am disappointed in the way the economy has been six years ago, and the buffers that we have been talking about every now and then that the current administration came to meet. We all believed in them that they will do better than the previous administration. Between 2017 when they came into power; 2018-2019, the economy fairly performed better. But the economy performed better because it was hinged on certain parameters.”
Yaw Tano
According to Yaw Tano, some of these parameters were foreign investments from other countries, individuals in the financial system who took various measures to help the economy and the investment that was made in the productive sectors. He indicated that these were some of the parameters that enabled the economy to perform better in the year 2018-2019.
He mentioned that the Ridge Hospital, Atuabo Gas and other investments made by the previous government are the projects that are currently pumping money into the economy. He questioned the well being of the economy without the Atuabo Gas plant, adding that the revenue that is generated from the gas plant has prevented the country from importing gas from other countries.
Ghana’s Self -Inflicted Debt
On the same panel discussion, Hon. Peter Yaw Kwakye -Ackah, MP for Amenfi Central Constituency stated that, the current debts that the country is owing is self -inflicted. He indicated that the country was the cause of its own economic afflictions, saying that from Kwame Nkrumah’s administration till the administration of Former President John Mahama, the country only had a debt of 122 billion dollars.
Hon. Kwakye Ackah stated that, the current debt of the country was 467billion cedis, and the government has caused a rise in the percentage of the debt stock. He mentioned that the government “just talk”. He added that formerly, the debt to GDP ratio did not amount to even 60%, yet the NPP government lamented about this percentage.
“The percentage of the loans we [NDC government] borrowed was only 54%. Ken Ofori-Atta, Bawumia and Nana Addo said they have never heard of such a thing before, hence they are coming to make it better. Yesterday when we went for the meeting, the official debt to GDP ratio that they presented was 79.9%”
Hon. Peter Kwakye Ackah
The MP explained that, out of the total revenue that the government gains from the country, 79.9% of this revenue will be invested into paying off the debts of the country, adding that unofficially, the debt to GDP ratio was more than a hundred percent.
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