President of the Institute for Liberty and Policy innovation, Peter Bismark Coffie, has intimated that it is time government moves away from attributing the economic woes to COVID-19.
Speaking on the current economic state, he averred that despite the fact that COVID has brought consequences, it should not be a justifiable reason for the economic downfall.
“It is not news that we are all blaming the performance of the economy on the pandemic. It is happening in most of the countries like Asia, Europe and the rest and I mean all over the continent.
“Yes, COVID has caused consequences. It has affected parts of the economy irrespective of the sector. So, we still have that authority to always use the yard stick but;I think it’s time we also have to move away from using the COVID all the time”.
Peter Bismark Coffie
His statements follow former President, John Mahama’s comments that government is placing lots of blames of its inability to manage the economy appropriately on the COVID-19.
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Mahama’s comment was right
Mr. Coffie further posited that the former President was right with his comment since the economy was already facing challenges prior to the pandemic.
“It’s been over a year now and we are still talking about the COVID as the problem that has caused us to be where we are. So, former President is right to say that that government is using COVID as a way to convince Ghanaians that things are not right.
“It is also time the government moves away from using COVID as the only problem that has caused our downfall. The economy itself and the GDP started declining after 2017. So, when we got to 2019 and 2020 when the pandemic came in, it also affected the entire economy. And so, using the pandemic as the problem, I don’t get it from the government”.
Peter Bismark Coffie
Pandemic can be blamed
Mr. Coffie also stated that the pandemic could be blamed to an extent because it reduced the entire economic growth of all other African countries that were projected to have a good growth rate. He said the growth however declined and “Ghana was part of that but it’s time we move away from that”.
He therefore urged the various political parties to stop apportioning blame and work towards revamping the economy.
“It’s time we stop blaming each other and focus on how we can help the economy to revamp the entire sectors to ensure that we have a good system”.
Peter Bismark Coffie
Current economic situation is worrying
Also contributing to the discussion, Executive Director for ASEPA, Alfred Mensah Thompson, was also of the view the economic situation the nation finds itself in is worrying.
He also stated that he Vice President who has been hailed to know much about the economy is “clueless” on economic issues and must not be allowed to speak on them.
“He is absolutely clueless and I think it high time Dr. Bawumia stops talking about the economy. We all live in the country and we know the dire economic situation the people of this country are facing”.
Mensah Thompson
