General News of Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Source: Starrfmonline.com
2017-02-22
First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo
First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo has re-echoed her husband’s pledge to fix challenges facing the country’s economy.
She said in a tweet on Tuesday February 21, 2017 whilst her husband was delivering his maiden State of the Nation Address that: “Despite the challenges, we will fix the economic situation” urging Ghanaians to “trust” President Akufo-Addo to “this promise.”
Despite the challenges we will fix the economic situation. Trust this government to deliver on this promise. pic.twitter.com/Se8LXkcXUS
— Rebecca Akufo-Addo (@RAkufoAddo) February 21, 2017
Akufo-Addo in his address to the nation which lasted about an hour gave a damning report on the country’s economy.
“The reality of the state of Ghana’s public finances today are quite stark,” he declared, noting that the banking sector unfortunately had been submerged by the country’s economic decline becoming “increasingly fragile” in the process.
He said at the beginning of 2009, the country’s total debt stock stood at GHc9.5 billion but by the end of 2016 the debt ballooned to GHc122 billion.
In percentage, he said the country’s debt stock stands at 74% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) “after all the previous denials to the contrary” by the previous administration.
“In fact, 92% of Ghana’s total debt stock was incurred in the last eight years under the previous government. The interest costs on this debt has also increased and will amount to estimated GHc14.1billion in 2017,” Akufo-Addo said.
That notwithstanding, said Akufo-Addo, he would salvage the mess left behind by the previous administration of ex-president John Mahama.
“I will not allow this country to collapse under my watch. We will reduce significantly the fiscal deficit this year,” he assured.
