Peprah Duffuor Missing – As Economic Forum Ends

Issues have started popping up about the absence of two former Ministers of Finance and Economic Planning under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, Kwame Peprah and Dr Kwabena Duffuor, from the just-ended National Economic Forum.

The forum ended yesterday with 22-point communiqué, among which is the review of budget targets to reflect reality – a call that has been consistently made by Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, Minority Spokesman on Finance, since the beginning of the year. It took the three-day meeting for the managers of the economy to realize that they were operating on a wrong footing.

While government was complaining about the decision of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP)to boycott the meeting, the two prominent finance minister who were among others, penciled down to make their contributions a the Forum, failed to show up at the event which was held at the plush Senchi Royal Resort near Atimpoku in the Eastern Region.

Duffuor and his successor, Seth Tekper – who was the former’s deputy at the Finance Ministry, Daily Guide learnt, are not on good terms and were not likely to share the same platform.

Though government claimed the event was important, checks indicated that Dr. Duffuor, who maintained inflation at a single digit for over a year, was said to have traveled out of the country before its commencement.

Mr. Kwame Peprah was the SSNIT board chairman championing the sale of Merchant Bank to the South African Rand Bank before he was removed by Mahama, abrogating the deal.

Surprise Package

Interestingly, one figure who was seen actively participating in the Forum was Madam Akua Donkor, the founder and leader of the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) – the party which could not met basic requirement (EC) to contest the 2012 general elections.

Her invitation to the programme provoked a heated debate among Ghanaians, with some questioning the rationale behind her inclusion on the list of participant s for such a serious national event.

Late Wednesday, pictures of Akua Donkor ran on the various social media networks.

She was captured sitting in one of the sessions at the Forum which was being chaired by Ghana’s longest serving Finance Minister, Dr. Kwasi Botchway.

Akua Donkor, former Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Paul Acquah; IMANI-Ghana’s Franklin Cudjoe and the man who did an overview of eh 2014 budget for the NDC and prides himself as an economic police analyst,’ Peter Boamah Otokunor, were among those who met to decide the fate of eh country.

The Forum, which was supposed to be a four-day event, was cut shot yesterday because of a supposed engagement of the Vice President.

In all, 140 Ghanaians were said to have been drawn from various fields of human endeavour to the Forum.