The National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has asked Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to explain to Ghanaians why only the Ghanaian economy is suffering from the Covid-19 crisis and not any of the neighboring nations.
Sammy Gyamfi asserts that the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war, has been used as justifications to deceive citizens into believing that the economy is having problems as a result of those two indicators.
Sammy Gyamfi’s response follows President Akufo-Addo’s assertion during the 2023 State of the Nation’s Address (SoNA) that Covid -19 and the Russian-Ukrainian war are the causes of Ghana’s economic woes and not poor economic management or the government’s reckless borrowing.
Reacting to the president’s speech in a panel discussion on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana on March 9, 2023, he argued “Covid was a pandemic and affected all countries. Which of our neighbors today is doing debt restructuring? Which of our neighbors today has defaulted on its debt repayment?
“Which of our neighbors has been downgraded to RD? below junk status and has lost access to the Euro-bond market? Which of our neighbors today, Togo, Burkina, Nigeria is experiencing inflation of 53.6%.”
Sammy Gyamfi added “…what are you people talking about out here? how did Covid jump all our neighbors and only land in Ghana to destroy her economy? to borrow the words of Bawumia. How?”
On the other hand, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is optimistic that Ghana will conclude talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a possible financial bailout programme.
According to President Akufo-Addo, though the government’s debt exchange programme was fraught with several challenges after its announcement, it has largely been accepted by the citizenry.
He made this known when the German Federal Minister of Finance, Christian Lindner, paid him a visit at the Jubilee House.
He has also called on the German government to encourage China, an ad hoc member of the Paris Club to support Ghana’s debt restructuring efforts.
