Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Kwaku Agyemang Kwarteng, has dismissed the notion that Ghana’s current economic crisis is solely attributable to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic.
He emphasized that the crisis largely stems from decades of imprudent expenditure and mismanagement of economic resources.
“I am not with the school of thought that we were not going to experience a financial crisis but for these [Covid-19 and Russia-Ukraine War].
“The country was always going to have some financial crisis. It might have been delayed a little bit if Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war had not happened but the fact remains that with the path we were walking, we were definitely going to get here,” the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Obuasi West told Joynews in an interview.
Mr Kwarteng explained that while these global events might have postponed the crisis to some extent, Ghana was inevitably heading towards this situation due to its historical trajectory.
He highlighted a prevailing culture of overspending and a lack of fiscal discipline in Ghana’s economic management.
Attributing the crisis to a culmination of poor political and economic decisions over the years, Kwarteng stressed the need for a fundamental shift in mindset and a renewed commitment to fiscal responsibility.
He warned that without such changes, Ghana risks sliding towards failure as a state.