Deputy National Youth Organiser of the NDC, Edem Agbana
A deputy National Youth Organiser of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Edem Agbana has charged the Akufo-Addo government to fix the economy and make life bearable for Ghanaians.
Speaking on the Morning Update on TV XYZ, Agbana, a youth activist, argued that the government led by Akufo-Addo has failed to deliver on their promises to Ghanaians prior to the 2016 elections.
He said in opposition, Candidate Akufo-Addo chastised the erstwhile Mahama administration for taking loans to embark on infrastructural development, saying they will not borrow to build but are doing the opposite of what they campaigned on.
Currently, the country’s public debt stands at 322 billion Cedis, with the Akufo-Addo government contributing to about 60% of Ghana’s public debt stock since independence.
At an NDC Ranking Members forum dubbed “Policy Dialogue on the Economy” at the UPSA Auditorium in Accra yesterday, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, disclosed that the country had attained a HIPC status due to the reckless borrowing by the NPP government.
“The IMF Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) in 2019, put Ghana at High Risk of Debt Distress. This was before Covid-19. The situation worsened by the end of 2020. With the planned borrowings in 2021, the situation is likely to deteriorate further,” Dr Forson stated.
However, the government is touting that the economy is growing faster despite a COVID-19 third wave starring at the country.
But Edem Agbana says if the country’s economy is doing well as the government is projecting, Ghanaians do not need President Akufo-Addo to announce it.
“The point is that all these things about Ghana being the fastest growing economy and all of that does not lie with the President of the Republic to tell us. If the economy is strong and is growing, we’ll feel it in our pockets,” Agbana told host Eric Ahianyo. “There are indicators; there are things that everybody uses in judging how well an economy is doing.”
“We see how prices of goods and services are rising, we see how the debt situation is,” he lamented and urged the government to be truthful to the suffering masses whose taxes offer officials comfort.
He commended the NDC MPs for exposing the government whenever they “manipulate” economic figures to favour the government.
“Even the World Bank in 2019 admitted that the government had submitted some figures that were incorrect,” he added.
Agbana also noted that the NDC, through the forum, presented the alternative to economic recovery as they “gave a true picture of the economy.”
He observed that the country’s debt-to-GDP- ratio was about 57% under the Mahama administration but candidate Akufo-Addo who kicked against that ahead of the 2016 polls rather escalated it to 74% debt to GDP ratio.
He said Akufo-Addo had added 171.222 billion Cedis to Ghana’s public debt, hastening that there is nothing good about the economy Akufo-Addo presides over.
To him, the terrible economic indicators “exposes the inability of the Akufo-Addo government to manage the economy.”