The General Secretary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Nana Yaa Jantuah has hit hard at the NPP government for keeping Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, in office months after the country’s economy deteriorated.
The former Public Affairs Director for the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) who was speaking on Power FM’s Inside Politics programme wondered why the minister was still in office after Ghana borrowed so hugely in a debt distress level.
“Ken Ofori-Atta abon [Ken Ofori-Atta is incompetent],” she said in Akan while explaining that the finance minister is highly incompetent and unintelligent for allowing the economy to slowly grind to a halt amid warnings from experts.
“When I call them F9 (unintelligent) ministers people want to come after me but that is who they are: non-performing ministers,” she argued.
Yaa Jantuah said times are hard that the working class and the ordinary people cannot afford a 3 square meal which was possible before the NPP took over power in 2017.
The hardship, she explained, was as a result of the inflationary spiral fuelled by a steep depreciation of the cedi which was not managed for a long time.
To her, President Akufo-Addo should have sacked Ofori-Atta long before the economy got crushed to a point that the country cannot pay for its domestic and external debts.
Experts and rating agents have described Ghana’s economy as one that is in a huge debt crisis.
Finding a way to handle the government’s debts internationally, Finance Minister Ofori-Atta recently disclosed that the government has initiated talks with China over Ghana’s debt following a successful Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
He told Citi News that negotiations with China are important because China holds the majority of the external bonds, stressing that he was to lead a delegation to China to plead for debt cancellation.
“The big elephant in the room is China, we will be visiting China by the end of the week to really discuss how they come into the envelope as quickly as possible. So we are looking at that support from them. China represents about a third of the $5.7 billion loan and so it is important that we engage them,” he said.
Nana Yaa Jantuah believes Ghana should not have degraded to a level that a team that mocked the previous government for going for an IMF bailout will now be drowned in debt borne out of mismanagement.
He partly blamed the nepotistic nature of President Akufo-Addo who is related to Ofori-Atta for the economic mess which she said had plunged the country into hunger.