He said that as part of the government’s flagship One District – One Factory (1D1F) plan, the government collaborated with a few private firms to create the 127 factories.
“We have people who have been supported in the private sector to ensure that their businesses thrive, and we are spending about a billion dollars every year to keep energy on,” Miracles Aboagye on Accra-based TV3 said. “We have at least 127 factories that are operational and others that are being built.”
Describing it as unprecedented, Miracles Aboagye said this forms part of the projects done out of the loans that have been contracted.
“Unprecedented, no government within a period of four or five years have been able to tar the number of kilometres of roads that we have tarred, over 3600killiometrs of roads that we have tarred,” he said.
Adding, “NDC came, they picked our debt from 9 billion to almost about 122 billion. We, admittedly, have moved it from 122 billion to 400 billion or whatever, but we have things to show for it.”
Ghana’s electorate will soon have to decide whether to give Nana Akufo-‘s administration Addo another term of four years in office or to reinstate his immediate predecessor, John Dramani Mahama, to the position he had held for four years and five months before his bid for a second full four-year term was rejected at the polls in 2016.
This means that for the first time in the history of the Fourth Republic, voters will be able to choose based on the respective track records of the two leading presidential candidates (who indeed are the only ones with even the faintest chance of winning) rather than just relying on the manifestos of the parties they lead – the incumbent New Patriotic Party and the opposition National Democratic Congress respectively.
This is crucial – with regards to macro-economic management, which is the most pivotal aspect of political governance by a long way, both parties are promising more or less the same things, these being adherence to prudence with regards to addressing the key performance indicators of the economy.
This means aiming to keep the fiscal deficit low; indeed the fiscal responsibility act caps it at five percent per annum but the exigencies of combating COVID-19 has necessarily suspended this indefinitely. It also means keeping inflation low; although there are no quantitative limits in palace, single-digit consumer inflation is the generally accepted objective Crucially, both parties commit to curbing the inordinate growth in the public debt which instructively passed the sustainability threshold of 70 percent of Gross Domestic Product recently, a situation delayed for several years by the economic machinations of both major parties during their most recent respective tenors in office.
With regards to their plans for the productive sectors of the economy, each party offers significant variations of basically the same theme for achieving accelerated economic growth but promises to win votes seem to have taken precedence over reality in terms of what can actually be done. While both parties are guilty of this to varying degrees, the NDC in particular is offering policy initiatives that would simply be impossible to fulfill.
Therefore voters would do best to make their impending electoral decisions based on which of the two candidates did better in achieving the universally agreed macro-economic goals, while in office.
In our tale of the tape, we have necessarily had to adopt the following methods.
Although former President John Dramani Mahama assumed office in August 2012, following the sudden death of his predecessor, Professor John Atta Mills, we use January 2017 as his starting date because we wish to use full year figures for our analyses. Besides it is assumed that during the last five months of 2012 he was simply executing the plans and policies of his predecessor, rather than his own.
However it should be noted that this works to Mahama’s advantage in that the economy suffered arguably its worst deterioration with regards to key macroeconomic indicators during that five month period so our method of analyses incorrectly assumes he inherited an economy in significantly worse shape than he actually did.
With regards to our analyses of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s tenor we have taken into account the distortionary effects of the outbreak of COVID 19 in 2020. Therefore, we are using end 2019 as his end of tenor position in assessing his performance, although we are also placi8ng the latest available figures for 2020 side by side, for information purposes.
ECONOMIC GROWTH
MAHAMA :
Former President John Dramani Mahama began his full four-year term in office at a time Ghana had just recorded an economic growth rate of 9.3 percent. Indeed, Ghana was coming off a period of extraordinary growth propelled by investment in the emergent upstream oil and gas sector, a period during which the country achieved the highest growth rate in the world in 2011, at 14.4 percent.
However a combination of the global economic slowdown brought about by lingering effects of the global financial crisis, the collapse of global commodity prices – including those for gold, cocoa and crude oil, Ghana’s main exports – and fiscal indiscipline at home, thereafter cut growth significantly. In turn this persuaded Ghana to turn to the International Monetary Fund for a programme to restore macro-economic stability and the IMF in typical fashion put the country into a demand-management programme which put precedence on the restoration of stability rather than growth. In his final ye4ar in office, Ghana’s economic growth rate had fallen to 3.4 percent.
AKUFO-ADDO :
Inheriting the 3.4 percent growth rate left by Mahama in his final year, incoming President Nana Akufo-Addo had promised to replace demand management with supply side, expansionary economic policy to accelerate growth and create direly needed employment opportunities. However, initially he was constrained by the IMF’s insistence on demand management, which indeed was prudent under the prevailing circumstances of the time.
Consequently his supply side thrust was only fully introduced in 2019, as Ghana exited the programme in April of that year.’ However the IMF had accepted a measured shift towards expansionary economic policy before the end of its programme.
By 2019, Ghana had resumed strong economic growth, posting 6.7 percent growth in that year. This year his government had aimed at 7.3 percent growth (although based on past experience this was unlikely to have quite been achieved), but COVID 19 has spoiled the party. Indeed at a time Ghana expected only marginal growth of 0.9 percent, although it now seems the economic slump has been shorter and shallower than originally anticipated, and so growth is now projected at about two percent.
INFLATION
MAHAMA :
Former President Mahama inherited a consumer price inflation rate of 13.5 percent in January 2012 although this is not quite correct; actually inflation was considerably lower in August 2012 but it spiked upwards sharply as the government went on a major deficit financing spree in the run up to the 2012 general elections which propelled inflation upwards, due to the huge liquidity injection government had given the economy during those few months.
The IMF ‘s interventions helped in the battle against inflation but in the run up to the 2016 elections the Mahama administration again lost the plot and consumer inflation by the time he left office had risen again to 15.4 percent.
AKUFO-ADDO :
President Akufo Addo promised to use fiscal consolidation to bring down inflation despite his expansionary economic plans and indeed he was fairly successful in this. The data indicates that before COVID 19 came and upset everything, by the second half of 2019 inflation had been brought down to its lowest level since the beginning of the 4th republic, falling to below eight percent consistently.
The truth though is that though his administration brought inflation into single digits, of just under 10 percent, the fall in inflation to below 8 percent was simply the result of the rebasing of the inflation computations by the Ghana Statistical Service. While this is not unusual – lots of other countries do it once in a while – critics of the government on Ghana point to the unusual practice of failing to state the results of the old computations alongside the rebased figures as evidence that the Government of Ghana rebased the computations for political rather than economic reasons.
Under the rebased inflation computations, the surge in inflation brought about by COVID 19 earlier in the year has since been curbed bringing inflation down to 10.1 percent by October this year.
EXCHANGE RATE DEPRECIATION
MAHAMA :
The depreciation of the cedi was arguably Mahama’s Achilles Heel. Apart from fiscal indiscipline leading to too many cedis pursuing too few dollars, the central bank leadership during all but his final year adopted an ill-advised strategy of demand management in addressing the exchange rate. This in turn destroyed confidence in Ghana’s forex supply capacity and consequent speculative trading did the rest. Mahama inherited a cedi depreciation rate of 17.5 percent in 2012 – although again this was largely due to his own fiscal indiscipline during his first five months in office as he sought to win re-election for a full four year turn. In 2013, his first year in office, the cedi actually depreciated by some 30 percent during the first half of the year alone. But after a similar first half of 2014, the central bank reversed its demand management directives restoring confidence to the local forex market and the cedi consequently appreciated sharply, recovering much of the ground it had hitherto lost to the dollar.
This was the harbinger of an extended period of cedi stability but in 2016 during the run up to the general elections, the government’s fiscal indiscipline again saw significant cedi depreciation of 9.3 percent.
AKUFO-ADDO:
The Akufo –Addo administration came with the promise to stabilize the exchange rate. However it failed, with the cedi being rated by Bloomberg as the world’s worst performing currency during the first quarter of 2019, before recovering to record full year depreciation of 12.9 percent – until its final year, when despite COVID 19 and the fact that it is an election year, it has achieved the lowest cedi depreciation since the currency was floated in 1985, at 3.2 percent during the first 10 months of the year.
Importantly, this year’s performance is sustainable, deriving from a trade surplus, historically high gross international reserves, strong inward remittances, and of crucial importance, forward forex sales by the Bank of Ghana which has pulled the rug out from under the feet of currency speculators who have tended to take positions against thee cedi for profit.
FISCAL DEFICIT
MAHAMA
Once again, Mahama gets the benefit of inheriting an inordinately high fiscal deficit figure whereas in actual fact, he brought it about himself. The fiscal deficit for 2012 was 12.0 percent but Mahama did not inherit it; rather he caused it. Instructively, barely a month before he suddenly died, Professor Mills had gone to Parliament to request approval for supplementary budgetary expenditure because Ghana was leading for a fiscal deficit of 4.5 percent for the year. Parliament approved extra spending that would take the deficit to a little over 6 percent. Somehow though, after the Presidency changed hands, Ghana ended the year with a 12 percent deficit, twice what had been targeted even with supplementary spending.
Fiscal profligacy under Mahama ended when the IMF programme started and the deficit was steadily reeled in to more sustainable levels until 2016 when once again the Mahama government lost the plot in the face of general elections, leaving office with a 9.0 percent fiscal deficit.
AKUFO-ADDO
President Akufo-Addo, on assuming office worked at fiscal consolidation with successive annual reductions in the fiscal deficit in 2017 and 2018. Instructively, however, upon exiting the IMF programme this began to change. Without the rebasing of Ghana’s economy in 2018 the fiscal deficit would have been higher than the previous year, not lower. Indeed the 2019 fiscal deficit was higher than 2018’s although still within the 5 percent imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, at 4.8 percent.
This year’s deficit target was 4.7 percent, although the conventional wisdom was that if in reality it could be kept at not more than the 5 percent statutory cap it would count as a win.
COVID 19 has completely changed the situation, however, with government now having a revised target of a massive 11.8 percent. The extraordinary circumst6ances, however, make it impossible to compare this against any previous year. Suffice it to say however that the revised target has allowed government to accommodate all its considerably large election-motivated expenditure – both budgeted and impulsive expenditure – without going over the target.
PUBLIC DEBT
This comparison is done in US dollar terms to remove the distortionary effects of cedi depreciation.
MAHAMA :
He inherited a total public debt equivalent to US$18,832.77 million, this translating into 49.4 percent of GDP at the time. Aggressive borrowing during his tenure – he started what has now become a tradition of successive administrations in Ghana of doing a Eurobond issuance each year – led to his leaving a public debt of US$ 29,203.8 million four years later, which translated into debt to GDP ratio of 56.8 percent.
AKUFO-ADDO
This will count as one of his biggest failings. After justifiably criticizing the Mahama administration roundly for the amount of new debt it had added on both in absolute terms and as a proportion of GDP, as well as its effect in crowding out government spending on both recurrent items and on capital projects, his administration has done much the same thing.
The statistics indicate that the debt to GDP ratio only rose from 56.8 percent to 63.0 percent over the three years 2017 to 2019, this is basically because of the rebasing of the economy in 2018. In absolute terms, the public debt rose from US$29,203.8 million to US$39,344.2 million during that time. This means it added on almost the same amount in three years as the Mahama administration added on in four years.
Mahama’s supporters point out that his borrowing left more brick and mortar infrastructure to show for it, while the Akufo-Addo administration spent a large part of its borrowing on non-quantifiable things such as the financial sector reforms which has added nearly GJHc20 billion to the public debt.
Akufo- Addo’s supporters retort that what it borrowed for is no less important than the infrastructure Mahama borrowed to implement; that Akufo Addo was also left with a much bigger debt servicing bill than Mahama inherited; and that some of the things Akufo-Addo borrowed for are still projects in progress ( such as railway infrastructure and One district one factory initiative) which will soon show their usefulness.
GROSS INTERNATIONAL RESERVES
MAHAMA
Mahama inherited gross international reserves of US$5,835 million at the start of 2013 and left leaving just about the same level, at US$5,867 million four years later. The level of reserves was inordinately low and in part explains why the cedi suffered heavy depreciation during his tenor. Indeed at times Ghana’s reserves fell to levels barely enough to cover two months’ worth of imports.
AKUFO-ADDO
During his tenor Akufo-Addo deliberately built Ghana’s reserves to historically high levels, at a time in 2019 actually exceeding the US$10 billion mark. They ended that year at US$7,563 million and by October 2020 had been beefed up again to US$87,655 million, enough for over four months of imports.
This has been crucial in both providing the cedi with exchange rate stability, unlike in previous times, and in securing better terms from international lenders for Ghana’s dollar denominated sovereign bond issuances on international capital markets.
The comparisons put the Akufo Addo administration ahead with regards to macro-economic management, but while this provides the foundation for a stronger economy it does not automatically translate into one; the productive sectors have to be handled well if good macro-economic management is to be taken advantage of.
On the upside, ahead of the 2020 general elections both major parties know what is required with regards to prudent macro-economic management will have learnt from past mistakes. The question now though is who can put their knowledge to best use and who can exercise the most fiscal discipline.
A former National Security Ministry official, Hopeson Adorye, has recounted some key contributions he made for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) following his dismissal from his post at the National Security.
Lamented the circumstances under which he recently lost his job, he maintained his resolved and stated emphatically that he is unperturbed by the turn of events.
He maintained that his contributions to the party, particularly the rise to the presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is well known.
Speaking for the first time about his dismissal on Oman FM’s Boiling Point programme last week, Adorye disclosed how he purportedly helped secure the Volta Region from vote manipulation by way of Togolese being brought into Ghana to vote for a particular party.
“You can testify that I was not seated behind the fence wall, I was in the thick of affairs. Ghana – Togo border operations,” he told host of the show, before adding: “I did it with four youth organizers in the Volta Region, we did it at the blind side of the regional executives.
“Because if we had informed them, they will claim they had plans to do it,” he added before narrating how it wasn’t until the day of vote in 2016 when he met the regional secretary at Kpando, then the secretary said they had gotten wind of his undisclosed operations.
He stated further that with his operation, the other party that usually brought illegal voters in, failed so to do: “We all saw the results in Volta Region, when they went to recruit voters, it was unsuccessful but this is my reward today?”
On his dismissal, he stressed: “I’m not a zombie, uncle, I was told that my support is not towards a particular camp so I should be dismissed, I have been dismissed. ‘Your appointment has been terminated with immediate effect. That is why I am stressing that God will cater for us, we will never die.
“I have left it all to God, we won’t sleep hungry. I know it is not my minister who will do this, Kan-Dapaah will not do this. But from what I am hearing, I pity those who issued the instruction,” he added.
For efficient debt management and sustainability, the Tax Justice Coalition Ghana has urged the government to be open about the nation’s debt and its restructuring.
The Coalition made this request during a workshop with the title “Ghana’s Debt and Economic Crisis: Global and Domestic Challenges” that was conducted in Accra on Tuesday, November 24.
Speaking at the event, Dr Vitus Adaboo Azeem, the Chairman of the Coalition, charged the Government to make available all data on Ghana’s debt including quasi-government-backed debt guarantees to fast-track Ghana’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He said the Government must regularly publish all transactions of State Enterprises, including the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF).
The Coalition said government must ensure the commitment by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to protect Cedi-denominated debts to protect domestic savings to avoid a total collapse of the economy.
Dr Azeem said, “Government must immediately reduce the cost of government machinery, either by a further cut on the overall emoluments of the office of government machinery and reduce the number of non-essential staff.”
He also advised that an intentional strategy to grow domestic private capital is a way of increasing local content was developed and implemented by the Government to help solve the current economic crisis the country is facing.
Apart from this, he encouraged the Government to implement strategic measures to shore up revenue mobilisation effort through technology-based approaches such as automated tax filing and payment systems, efficient tax-related data management systems and improve tax compliance across all the tax handles.
The Chairman also urged the Government to intensify efforts to curb the illicit financial flows as the nation continued to lose valuable revenues through such avenues.
He said, “The Government must strengthen state accountability institutions such as the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), CHRAJ, EOCO, Ghana Audit Service and Internal Audit Agency by adequately resourcing and guaranteeing their independence to ensure efficiency in public financial management and fight corruption more effectively.”
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on November 25 bought 100 copies of ‘Bittersweet Pill of Politics,’ a book authored by Ama Bame Busia, a stalwart of the New Patriotic Party and a former member of the Council of State.
The President made the announcement via a virtual address he delivered at the launch of the memoir in Accra.
Akufo-Addo joined virtually because he is in Qatar to cheer on the Black Stars at the 2022 Word Cup.
He praised Ama Busia for her role in politics stating: “I urge you all to get a copy of this wonderful book and I wish to set the example by buying for GH¢100,000; 100 copies for our public libraries across the country. Ama well done and God bless.”
GBC report on the launch
Reviewing the book, Madam Elizabeth Akua Ohene told a story of her humble beginnings—seven times arrested and three months in detention during General Acheampong’s regime—through to what is described as her sweet days under Ex-President Kufuor as a Council of State member.
She received applause from the Vice-President who also launched the book, her son and Chief Executive of DVLA, Mr. Kwasi Agyeman Busia, Publisher of her book, and others, for her role in nation-building.
A message from former President Mahama, through his 2020 running mate, Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman, said Madam Ama Busia deserves to be celebrated.
Madam Ama Busia encouraged more women to enter politics.
Former President Kufuor shared some fond memories about Madam Busia in their youth and congratulated her for her work.
He claims that Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensa-Bonsu told him about this during an interview.
Despite the fact that he said Adwoa Safo did not specify a return date, it is anticipated that she will travel for the Christmas season.
“She has left again; she has informed Majority Leader and Leader mentioned it during an interview with him. She will spend Christmas but until then, we do not know when she will return,” Kwame Nrkumah Tikese said on his Ade Akye Abia show Saturday morning.
After returning from the US on November 11, Adwoa Safo formally took up her parliamentary responsibilities again.
Since the 2022 budget was approved on November 26, 2021, Sarah Adwoa Safo has not been a member of the House.
The MP returned when Speaker of the House Alban Bagbin ordered on October 26, 2022, that the report of the committee formed to investigate her case and the cases of two other MPs who missed several sessions be brought before the entire house for discussion.
Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Leader, objected to the committee report’s admissibility for the house to consider, but Alban Bagbin overruled him.
“As I have noted in this ruling, the decision (sic) on not to admit a motion is the exclusive preserve of the Speaker. In view of the foregoing, the House is well within its right to receive and consider reports of the committee and make a determination arising out of the consideration.
“In the circumstances, it is my ruling that the motion was rightfully admitted and the report of the committee is subject to the consideration of the house. It goes without saying that the (sic) objection of the Majority Leader today (sic) is hereby dismissed…” he concluded his verdict.
It will be recalled that on July 29, 2022, a day after parliament adjourned its first decision to determine the fate of the Dome Kwabenya MP, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo sacked her as the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection.
In a statement, the president said the revocation of the MP’s appointment as minister was to take immediate effect.
“In accordance with article 81(a) of the Constitution, the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has revoked the appointment of Hon. Sarah Adwoa Safo, Member of Parliament for Dome Kwabenya, as Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, with immediate effect.
“The Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, will continue to act as caretaker Minister for the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, until such a time that President Akufo-Addo appoints a substantive Minister,” the statement from the Presidency concluded.
Sarah Adwoa Safo has been in the United States of America since 2021.
However, barely two weeks following her return, she is reported to have left the country again.
Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has expressed bewilderment over the government’s decision to increase Value Added Tax (VAT).
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, in his presentation of the 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy in parliament on Thursday, November 24, 2022, announced an increment in VAT rate for the upcoming year.
But reacting to the announcement in a Facebook post, the opposition MP wondered how the current event is occurring under the presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who led a protest against VAT when it was introduced in 1995.
“Who could ever have imagined or predicted that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who led the fatal 1995 Kumepreko demonstration against the introduction of VAT under President Rawlings which tragically claimed the lives of Ahunu Ahonga & 5 others would today be increasing VAT by 2.5%,” he wondered.
According to the minister for finance, the increment in VAT will allow the government to raise funds to finance projects such as road construction.
“Mr. Speaker, the demand for roads has become the cry of many communities in the country. Unfortunately, with the current economic difficulties and the absence of dedicated source of funding for road construction, it is difficult to meet these demands. In that regard we are proposing the implementation of new revenue measures. The major one is an increase in the VAT rate by 2.5 percentage points,” the minister said.
In 1995, Nana Akufo-Addo and other members of the New Patriotic Party led what is described as Ghana’s largest demonstration in history.
Five protesters were killed during a protest against the then-government of Jerry John Rawlings’ decision to introduce VAT. Unidentified assailants fired into the crowd of protestors.
“We have issues with the wage bill, which has moved up to the second-largest expense category.
In reality, under this government interest payment, it has lost its top spot and has moved up to the top spot.
And currently, we are using 103% of our tax revenue to cover interest payments alone.
That simply implies that once you pay your interest expense, no matter how hard the people of Ghana work to provide you money, it still won’t be enough, therefore you’ll need to borrow, he said.
Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central and the Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo is worried that interest payments are now the most significant item on the country’s wage bill.
He diagnoses the situation as part of the broader economic mismanagement by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government
According to him, interest payments leapfrogged wage bill expenditure because of the lack of fiscal and financial space as contained in the 2022 budget statement presented by Ken Ofori-Atta on November 17.
“We have problems with the wage bill, which has now become the number two most significant item of expenditure. In fact, it has lost its place as the number one, under this government interest payment has become the number one.
“And now we are spending 103% of our tax revenue just to pay for interest service. What that simply means is that once you pay for your interest cost, no matter how the people of Ghana break their backs to give you money, it just isn’t enough, you must go to borrow.
“You notice that we run a primary balance deficit of about 8.3 billion Ghana cedis. It means that we still have to borrow for part of the interest cost. So that means that you don’t have fiscal space in the budget,” he submitted on Citi TV’s Point Blank show that aired on Monday, November 22, 2021.
“So when disaster struck, you economy is already gone and in that case, you cannot accommodate any additional expenditures and you can’t accommodate additional pressures,” he added.
He added that the key to better managing the economy was to create fiscal buffers to deal with headwinds. In his view, when COVID came, the government ended up squandering all fiscal buffers.
He noted further that the situation is no different in the area of financial buffers because the government has blown over a billion dollars in monies handed over to them by the erstwhile John Dramani Mahama administration.
The last budget, the Finance Minister under the heading: “Resource Allocation for 2022” stated thus:
Mr. Speaker, Total Expenditure (including clearance of Arrears) is projected at GH¢137,529 million (27.4% of GDP). The estimate for 2022 represents a growth of 23.2 percent above the projected outturn of GH¢111,645 million (25.3% of GDP) for 2021. The key drivers of expenditure growth include Capital Expenditure, funding of key Government flagship programmes including the GhanaCares “Obaatanpa” Programme, wage bill, and interest payment.
“Mr. Speaker, Compensation of Employees is projected at GH¢35,841 million (7.1% of GDP) and constitute 26.1 percent of the Total Expenditure (including Arrears clearance).
“Mr. Speaker, Use of Goods and Services is also projected at GH¢9,149 million (1.8% of GDP). This represents 6.7 percent of the projected Total Expenditure (including Arrears clearance).
“Mr. Speaker, Interest Payment are projected at GH¢37,447 million (7.5% of GDP). Of this amount, Domestic Interest due will constitute about 77.3 percent and amount to GH¢28,943 million. To reduce the cost of borrowing, Government will continue to explore options of reprofiling domestic debt in 2022.”
Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, a suspended elder of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), has stated that the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo he has known over the years will not continue to mismanage Ghana as he is now doing.
The government received a score of two out of ten from the retired military veteran and ambassador, suggesting that it is not operating under the direction of his friend.
Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe responded, “I will rate them two out of 10,” when asked to rate the performance of the current administration.
“We have retrogressed…when I say we are a failed state, I know what I am talking about. This government is not functioning…That surprises me because I know Nana Addo was not like that.
Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe noted that Ken Ofori-Atta, the embattled Minister of Finance should have resigned immediately the country decided to seek a bailout from the IMF.
He stressed that if things were going well, the Minister of Agric, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, “who is a doctor of agriculture will not be engaging in cheap publicity”.
There has been an increase in the prices of goods and services recently whiles transportation fares have also increased more than four times due to the increase in fuel prices.
The meeting which took place at the Windsor Castle ws confirmed by a tweet on the official handle of the Royal Family.
“This afternoon, The King welcomed the President of Ghana to Windsor Castle for an Audience,” the caption accompanying a photo of the two gentlemen shaking hands read.
Akufo-Addo is in the United Kingdom on a private visit. He is expected back in the country today.
Per GhanaWeb tracking, Akufo-Addo becomes the third African leader to meet the King after Ali Bongo of Gabon and Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria respectively.
Dozens of African leaders were in the UK in Septemberto attend the funeral of the King’s late mother, Queen Elizabeth II who spent seven decades as the monarch.
In order to stabilize and develop the economy, Ghana, according to Professor Ernest Aryeetey, a former vice chancellor of the University of Ghana, must look beyond the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He pointed out that Ghana had always been able to overcome economic difficulties with the help of the IMF, but for political reasons, the country had refused to implement the necessary reforms.
At the 26th GJA Awards in Accra, which had as its topic, “Walking the path towards Ghana’s Economic Recovery – The Role of the Media,” Prof. Aryeetey made this statement.
“Today, we are where we are because we failed to develop the right type of politics that will support economic transformation… (We need to) think about the political economy. How we (can) use our institutions to develop the right type of policies,” Prof. Aryeetey said, adding that the country needed to welcome more analysis and debates on the economy.
Prof. Aryeetey asked the media to create space for discussions on the economy towards finding solutions to the challenges, saying without that, it would only be the ideas of a small political group, friends and families.
“Let’s encourage debates on the economy. Let’s create a Ghana where ideas flourish and stop tagging people who share their thoughts on the economy..,” Prof. Aryeetey, who chaired the awards event said.
Madam Florence Oboshie Sai-Coffie, Special Advisor to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Media and Strategic Communications, said government was doing its best to bring the economy back on track and tasked the media to amplify voices that could help find solutions to the economic challenges.
She said the media would be prioritised in the search for the solution and said Government was happy journalists were responding positively to the call for all hands to be on deck for economic recovery.
Mr Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo, Chairman of National Media Commission, asked the media to sustain national interest in discussions on the economy and not partisan ones.
Charles Adu Boahen was fired from his job as Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance on November 14, 2022, which he had held since early 2021.
His termination was announced in a letter from the president, which cited his accusation in the investigative film “Galamsey Economy” produced by Tiger Eye PI, the company run by journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
His recent woes are allied to comments he made to investigators posing as investors who wanted access to big people in government. Adu Boahen reportedly boasted about his links to the Vice President and how a fee of US$200,000 could get his buy-in.
GhanaWeb footage of his vetting in 2017, captures how Adu Boahen boasted about his investment prowess only for him to travel to the United Arab Emirates in 2018 where he took monies intending to help investors get access to DR. Mahamudu Bawumia.
He told the vetting Committee: “Mr. Chairman, I have over 18 years of experience in the finance industry, fundraising, attracting investments into Ghana through my two companies, I think we have seen over 30 million dollars of investment into Ghana, both in real estate and in other activities.
“Asset management as well, so I think I can understand any of the capital markets, so, based on what my minister would like me to do, I believe I could add value….” he is heard stressing.
Charles Adu Boahen, Minister of State at the Finance Ministry was implicated in the ‘Galamsey Economy’ investigative documentary released by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas on November 14.
The now-dismissed minister was captured on tape making comments to the effect that access by investors to Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia could be facilitated at a cost of US$200,000.
Bawumia has dispelled the allegations and insisted that his integrity remains his most cherished asset in life.
“My most cherished asset in life is my integrity and I will not allow anyone to use my name to engage in corrupt activities,” Bawumia said in a post calling for the minister’s dismissal.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has since terminated Adu Boahen’s appointment and referred the contents of the investigation to the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
This came after the vice president denied reports that he charges a $200,000 “appearance fee” to meet with potential investors interested in investing in Ghana.
Adongo questions whether Dr. Bawumia claimed to have honesty because he was unaware of any payments made to him.
A receipt for a bribe is something I’ve never seen before.
The Vice-President after the news broke wrote on his Facebook page on Monday, November 14, 2022: “I would like to state that if what the minister is alleged to have said is accurately captured in the video, then his position as a minister of state is untenable. He should be dismissed summarily and investigated.”
“I am not aware of any such meeting held by Minister Adu Boahen or a supposed “appearance fee”. My most cherished asset in life is my integrity and I will not allow anyone to use my name to engage in corrupt activities,” Bawumia added.
However, Charles Adu-Boahen was sacked by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo hours after the news broke online.
Anas’ investigative piece titled “Galamsey Economy” aired on Monday 14th and will also air today, November 15, 2022.
The Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and his Deputy John Kumah must also leave office immediately, a member of the Peoples National Convention (PNC) Bernard Mornah has said.
In his view, Mr Ofori-Atta is not the answer to the economic challenges facing Ghanaians.
“Investors don’t have confidence in the economy because of Ofori-Atta,” he said on the Big Issue on TV3 with Berla Mundi on Tuesday November 15.
He added ” John Kumah said they will not go to the IMF but today we are at the IMF.”
He was contributing to a discussion on the sacking of the Minister of State at the Finance Ministry Charles Adu Boahen.
President Akufo-Addo has sacked Mr Adu Boahen.
“The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has terminated the appointment of the Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Charles Adu Boahen, with immediate effect.
“After being made aware of the allegations levelled against the Minister in the exposé, ‘Galamsey Economy’, the President spoke to Mr. Adu Boahen, after which he took the decision to terminate his appointment, and also to refer the matter to the Special Prosecutor for further investigations.
“The President thanked Mr. Adu Boahen for his strong services to his government since his appointment in 2017, and wished him well in his future endeavours,” a statement issued by the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Mr Eugene Arhin said on Monday November 14.
He explained that although he attempted to stamp his authority on absenteeism he could not succeed in that action.
“I admit that I was not successful in dealing with absenteeism within the lawmakers during my tenure as Speaker of Parliament even though I attempted to stamp my authority on the menace,” Prof. Oquaye bemoaned.
He indicated that regarding the issues involving Sarah Adwoa Safo, the MP for Dome-Kwabenya Constituency, Henry Quartey, MP for Ayawaso Central Constituency, both in the Greater Accra Region and Kennedy Agyapong, MP for Assin Central Constituency in the Central Region, who absented themselves from Parliament for more than 15 days, confessed that he did not really succeed in absenteeism.
“I must confess that one area which I did not really succeed in is absenteeism in the House, I did not succeed in tackling it and I did not succeed in tackling punctuality but I did it a while and stopped which was unfortunate and also I did not succeed in ensuring that there was even a record of how lawmakers voted,” he said.
“Members must vote in a certain direction, we had two former Members of Parliament contesting for president, who were John Dramani Mahama and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo unlike United States when Barack Obama’s record was brought out as a Senator but we do not have that in the country.”
“It is also important to have these issues because you want to know for instance, if you want to be president, what is your record on women and your record on oil,” Prof. Oquaye pointed out.
He hinted there would be an era where the two sides would have no option but to rely solely on consensus building to get proceedings in Parliament regarding disagreements in the House so as to develop because there would be no alternative to consensus building in relation to the move by the Minority to vote out Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance.
Gideon Commey, founder, Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM), staged a one-man protest against Ghanaian officials at the ongoing COP27 in Egypt.
According to him, the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his officials have no business attending a summit on climate while they look on for the forests and water bodies to be destroyed by illegal miners.
Commey is seen holding a placard in a viral video on social media, telling the government officials at the COP27 to quickly address the galamsey menace.
He was seen disrupting a conversation between Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Agriculture, and some of the dignitaries at the summit.
Not even an attempt by the minister would stop Gideon Commey from putting his message across.
The youth activist and researcher noted that his outfit will not look on while the government officials paint a perfect picture at COP27.
Commey said galamsey is the biggest threat to Ghana’s security and livelihood at the moment.
“I was at COP27 today. I staged a one-man direct action targeting Ghana officials at the summit. I didn’t see Abu Jinapor but I targeted the Agric Minister and told him that his government should address galamsey else there’s no point being at COP.
“He told me he was having an important discussion (with the man he was talking to) so I should keep quiet. I told him my galamsey campaign was equally important,” Gideon Commey said.
Galamsey has destroyed many mining communities, polluted water bodies with mud and mercury residue as well as forests in the country.
Some communities have mines dug under homes leading to buildings collapsing on residents.
Attempts by the government to halt galamsey have not been successful as miners continue to mine illegally on the blind side of the government.
Dr. Smart Sarpong, a Senior Research Fellow of the Kumasi Technical University, has backed calls for the removal of Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta as Finance Minister.
The call to remove Mr. Ofori-Atta started with over 80 members of the Majority Caucus and now the entire Caucus says they are in alignment with the position of the eighty members.
Nonetheless, the Finance Minister remains at post as the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has appealed to the MPs to let him finish Ghana’s deal for financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Reacting to the ongoing agitations, Dr. Smart Sarpong was of a few words stating; “I would have resigned if it were me and allowed someone else to take my place.”
He advised the Minister to exit office and use his expertise to help his successor.
President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has once more asked for the United Nations Security Council to be reformed, claiming that the existing system is unfair to African nations.
Speaking at an event organised by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, on Wednesday, 10th November 2022, in New York, President Akufo-Addo noted that the Security Council is constrained by its anachronistic structure and methods, which undermine efforts to tackle contemporary challenges in the most effective manner.
“The conversations around reforms, which have been going on for three decades without an end in sight, must, therefore, yield real changes to the structures of the Council to make it innovative in its approach,” he said.
According to the President, the current structure of the UN Security Council represents a long-standing injustice toward the countries of Africa, and the time is long overdue in addressing it.
“It is obvious that the contemporary world has moved on significantly from the post-1945 world, which gave rise to the birth of the United Nations and the structure of the Security Council. The world of 2022, and even less that of 2050, is not the world of 1945. The crisis of the multilateral financial institutions and the United Nations system, which were born from the rubble of the Second World War, is a deep crisis,” President Akufo-Addo said.
He continued, “It will continue until a fair system is put in place; a system that reflects the new balances, no longer based on who lost or won the Second World War, but on the major contemporary and future balances. These balances must take into account new realities such as demographic dynamics or access to resources, in a context of scarcity.”
In its current state, the President noted that the Security Council is finding it increasingly difficult to propagate the rule of law and democratic principles.
“The use of the veto as an instrument of great power and interest is denuding the Security Council of a great deal of legitimacy as the principal instrument for the maintenance of international peace and security. The African Common Position on UN Reform, based on the Ezulwini Consensus, is of even greater relevance today than it has ever been. It is essential that it be brought back to the centre of global discourse,” he stressed.
President Akufo-Addo was confident that it will only be through the reforms that are suggested in the African Common Position that will enable the Security Council to be effective in addressing the challenges of our time.
“And it is only through its effectiveness at maintaining international peace and security that the Council can remain credible, legitimate and relevant,” he added.
“Of course, the country is worse. We are in a serious crisis. People are suffering a lot,” he emphasised on November 10, 2022.
After being slammed for keeping mute over the seemingly poor living conditions of Ghanaian,s and somewhat contributing to the hardships as a result of his ‘Nana toaso’ statement during the 2020 general elections, Sarkodie has again stood by his statement.
“What I said he [Nana Addo] should ‘toaso’, I stand by it because I think I benefitted from Free Education directly and I have the right to say I endorse that because this is directly.
“My mom has these girls we’ve been supporting. At first, she would call, asking me to help. I am not saying it is much but just the fact that I am not even hearing that, it came from that place and I was specific about what I was endorsing,” he disclosed.
A picture Yvonne shared on Twitter had Nana Akufo-Addo edited to fit a Pharoah-looking portrait which she accompanied with a caption that suggested how wicked the King was.
The caption read, “And God kept hardening Pharoah’s heart.”
The actress also indicated that she was going to use the president’s Pharoah-looking image as her new profile picture on the bird app.
This comes after she lamented the rising cost of living in the country and the government’s seeming unperturbed posture to change the narrative.
The actress in a series of tweets condemned the government for what she described as a failure on its part to deliver on the juicy promises made to the Ghanaian people during the campaign period.
According to her, the New Patriotic Party and its then-presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo in 2016 deceived Ghanaians with promises and has now become evident that they cared less about the economic situation in the country after their mandate was renewed in 2020.
Tweeting at President Akufo-Addo, the filmmaker maintained that the public will not sit aloof while the president and his government take the country for granted.
Ghanaian leader Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Monday, 7 November 2022, joined the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr Rishi Sunak, to launch the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) at the 27th session of the Conference of Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), currently underway in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
FCLP is a new political forum that brings together governments and partners to work together to implement solutions that reduce forest loss, increase restoration, and support sustainable development.
It creates a platform for heads of state, governments and their ministers, to combine their political efforts to accelerate global action to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 while delivering sustainable development and promoting an inclusive rural transformation.
It follows the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, adopted by world leaders at COP26, last year, where they committed to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.
The Partnership will be co-chaired by Ghana and the United States.
FCLP’s ministerial session, which will drive the ambition of the Partnership, will be co-chaired by Ghana’s Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel A. Jinapor, MP, and the United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, Senator John Kerry.
Speaking at the launch, President Akufo-Addo said Ghana is committed to sustainable land use and the protection and restoration of forest and other terrestrial ecosystems.
He touted some forest policies already being implemented by Ghana, such as the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme, the Ghana Shea Landscape Emission Reductions Project, and the Green Ghana Project.
The President said the FCLP will provide a unique space for intergovernmental collaboration and coordinated action with the inputs of non-state partners and stakeholders. He added that Ghana will use her leadership on the FCLP to foster cooperation among tropical forest countries in Africa and beyond, to make the FCLP a successful vehicle to drive significant and impactful contributions to Climate Action.
For his part, the UK Prime Minister said forests are one of the greatest natural wonders of the world but continue to be undervalued and underestimated.
He said the best way to achieve the 1.5 degrees Celsius global target requires that we protect our forests.
He called on countries to deliver their climate promises, adding that the United Kingdom will deliver its 1.5 billion pounds pledge.
He said the UK Government is, also, committing 19 million pounds towards forest protection.
He called on the private sector to commit funds to address the drivers of deforestation.
DKB’s video captured Sarkodie’s lyrics, “If today I am sleeping with lights in my house and my children can go to school for free, forgive me, but Nana, continue (Toaso).”
The aforementioned lines formed part of Sarkodie’s lyrics for the ‘Happy Day’ song which featured Kuami Eugene. The song was described by some persons as an endorsement of Nana Akufo-Addobecause of the ‘Nana Toaso’ phrase which the ruling party and Nana Addo used for their campaign.
According to DKB, after composing this song, Sarkodie has been mute over Akufo-Addo’s poor governance. The comedian mentioned that the rapper would have composed over 200 songs for the former President, John Dramani Mahama he were still president of the country.
“If this be John Mahama time like he drops 200singles, 4 mixtapes, 7 EPs, 10 LPs and 56 remixes on the economic mess we Dey face. Na joke ooo,” he mocked.
During John Mahama’s time as president, Sarkodie released ‘Inflation’, ‘Masses’ and ‘Dumsor’ which touched on the economic situation and energy crisis. The musician is yet to release a song addressing same although the economic crisis continue to worsen.
In some social media reactions, netizens have indicated that DKB was being honest in his statement while noting that Sarkodie was a hypocrite.
“True talk Yaaro. Every passing day, I get convinced he probably was paid to be churning out those songs. He’s probably been paid to shush now; who knows?” a user said.
Another added, “He’s the greatest hypocrite of this generation” while a third said, “You are right.”
Meanwhile, calls for Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to be sacked or resign following the economic crisis continue unabated. Some have also suggested that President Akufo-Addo should resign for failing to deliver.
Fuel prices continue to increase astronomically. A litre which sold at GH¢6 in January now sells at GH¢17.99 while the cedi has returned to its depreciation trajectory. It now sells at GH¢14.20 instead of GH¢6 early this year.
It is becoming evident, according to security expert Adib Saani, that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo values his Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta more than he values all of the MPs running for his party’s nomination.
The expert explained that even though it is obvious that the minister’s oversight of the sector has contributed to all of the economic problems the country is currently experiencing, the president still values him highly.
“The president’s refusal to fire the finance minister for this economic mess is only indicative of the importance he attaches to the minister.
“He attaches greater reverence to the finance minister than all 137 ruling government MPs. Even though the finance minister is the chief architect for these economic fall outs, the president still views him as untouchable for reasons best known to themselves,” he said.
Adib Saani added that the refusal by the president, beyond the mounting of pressure on him from many quarters of the country, to sack Ken Ofori-Atta, only means one thing: he doesn’t care what people think.
“His refusal to sack him is tantamount to him giving the MPs the middle finger. This certainly proves the seeming lack of accountability in our democracy.
“The president appears to value personal loyalty over state loyalty,” he added.
Earlier, some 80 MPs from the Majority in parliament made an unprecedented move when they called on the president to sack the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, with immediate effect over his poor performance.
The MPs explained that their constituents had mounted so much pressure on them because they had lost faith in the minister.
However, the president is yet to take such an action even though he met with the MPs, urging them to give the minister time to conclude the International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal and present the 2023 budget to parliament.
Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia spoke about the economy in a speech he delivered at the Hogbetsotso Za festival which is taking place in the Volta Region.
On Saturday, November 5, 2022; Bawumia, leader of a government delegation, arrived at the venue of the grand durbar to cheers but it wasn’t before long that he was subjected to boo and jeers whiles delivering his address.
In a Joy News video cited by GhanaWeb, the Vice President is captured enumerating what he called accomplishments of the government. His listing was punctuated by boos and jeers from a section of the crowd.
It was at the end of his listing that he made comments relating to the state of the economy, admitting among others that times were hard and government had the task of ensuring that relief is brought to the populace.
“Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we have more to do. There is a lot more, Ghanaians are facing a major increase in the cost of living, the cost of fuel prices, food prices and so on. And we have to do more to make sure we can relieve the burdens of Ghanaians,” he stressed.
Bawumia suffers boos
Videos that circulated on social media showed Bawumia’s arrival amid cheers from onlookers who had gathered to celebrate the festival with the Awomefia Togbui Sri II and the people of Ho.
Bawumia did not appear disrupted or disturbed by the incident but it appears he sent a subtle message to the booing crowd at the end of his list of accomplishments.
“This is accomplishments, this is accomplishment. There are many people who don’t like to hear good news but it is good news. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have much more to do.”
Amid an economic downturn, calls for Akufo-Addo to resign has heightened with a November 5, 2022 protest dubbed ‘Kume Preko Reloaded’ making the loudest call as activists and politicians marched in Accra to press home that demand.
The government is meanwhile, grappling with an economic crisis, which along with the galamsey scourge and corruption are the major drivers for the call on Akufo-Addo to resign along with his Vice President, Mahamadu Bawumia.
Akufo-Addo in his October 30 address on the economy blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as causes for the country’s economic woes.
While admitting that the country was in crisis and rallying support for various government interventions to stem the tide, he said the situation was not peculiar to the country as many nations across the world were also experiencing difficulties.
“We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time.
“But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems, but the long-term structural problems that have bedeviled our economy,” he said.
But like before, President Akufo-Addo blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as causative factors for the economic woes.
Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia spoke about the economy in a speech he delivered at the Hogbetsotso Za festival which is taking place in the Volta Region.
On Saturday, November 5, 2022; Bawumia, leader of a government delegation, arrived at the venue of the grand durbar to cheers but it wasn’t before long that he was subjected to boo and jeers whiles delivering his address.
In a Joy News video cited by GhanaWeb, the Vice President is captured enumerating what he called accomplishments of the government. His listing was punctuated by boos and jeers from a section of the crowd.
It was at the end of his listing that he made comments relating to the state of the economy, admitting among others that times were hard and government had the task of ensuring that relief is brought to the populace.
After a list of infrastructure, technological and education sector deliverables of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government, he concluded thus:
“Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we have more to do. There is a lot more, Ghanaians are facing a major increase in the cost of living, the cost of fuel prices, food prices and so on. And we have to do more to make sure we can relieve the burdens of Ghanaians,” he stressed.
Bawumia suffers boos
Videos that circulated on social media showed Bawumia’s arrival amid cheers from onlookers who had gathered to celebrate the festival with the Awomefia Togbui Sri II and the people of Ho.
Bawumia did not appear disrupted or disturbed by the incident but it appears he sent a subtle message to the booing crowd at the end of his list of accomplishments.
“This is accomplishments, this is accomplishment. There are many people who don’t like to hear good news but it is good news. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have much more to do.”
Amid an economic downturn, calls for Akufo-Addo to resign has heightened with a November 5, 2022 protest dubbed ‘Kume Preko Reloaded’ making the loudest call as activists and politicians marched in Accra to press home that demand.
The government is meanwhile, grappling with an economic crisis, which along with the galamsey scourge and corruption are the major drivers for the call on Akufo-Addo to resign along with his Vice President, Mahamadu Bawumia.
Akufo-Addo in his October 30 address on the economy blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as causes for the country’s economic woes.
While admitting that the country was in crisis and rallying support for various government interventions to stem the tide, he said the situation was not peculiar to the country as many nations across the world were also experiencing difficulties.
“We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time.
“But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems, but the long-term structural problems that have bedeviled our economy,” he said.
But like before, President Akufo-Addo blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as causative factors for the economic woes.
His comments were a reply to Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa’s opinion that the president, in his latest address, should have apologised for imposing hardships on Ghanaians.
Speaking on Peace FM on November 1, Oppong Nkrumah disagreed and said the North Tongu MP’s claim was false.
“First of all, it is not true. Akufo-Addo has not imposed economic difficulties on people. If you say the President should say he is sorry for the hardship he has imposed on you, I’m not sure the president and his spokesperson will agree with you,” he said.
He, however, stated that he did not want to engage in partisan politics, especially in these economic times.
Media personality and fashion designer, Kofi Okyere Darko has indicated that he will park his car and buy himself a motorbike.
He said this on Vogue with GhanaWeb’s Doreen Abanema Abayaa when he was asked how severely he is being impacted by the ongoing financial hardship in the country.
According to KOD, the rich and poor are experiencing the intensity of the economic crisis.
“No matter how rich you are in Ghana, I think you would definitely feel what’s happening in Ghana economically.
“We are in a terrible place. Let me tell you, tomorrow, I am going to Alajo. I am going to get a motorbike,” he said.
“I own a bicycle but I want something that moves a bit faster so I am getting a motorbike,” he added.
Lately, Ghanaians have overlooked their political ties to lash at the government and the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, following the economic crisis.
There have been calls for his resignation while some have also called for the dismissal of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
It’s a question that begs for an answer – whether or not the Ghanaian people will give the New Patriotic Party (NPP) another chance to govern the country when electorates go to the polls in 2024 taking into cognizance the economic hardship that has engulfed the citizenry under the leadership of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addowho is serving his last term in office.
A number of names have been mentioned as flagbearer hopefuls with a few confirming their willingness to lead the party to ‘break the eight’. One is Kwabena Agyepong, a former General Secretary of the party who also served as Press Secretary to former president John Agyekum Kufuor between 2001 to 2006.
Taking his turn on The Delay Show aired on November 5, 2022, monitored by GhanaWeb, the civil engineer expressed optimism that he is the man to lead the NPP regardless.
“Considering how Ghanaians are wailing and complaining about hunger; Ghanaians are dejected under NPP and now you’re here as a member of the NPP asking to be voted for. Do you think Ghanaians will listen to you?” asked Deloris Frimpong Manso (Delay)who sought to probe the feasibility of Mr. Agyepong’s aspiration.
“They will listen to me,” said the politician. “First and foremost, we need to know that we need someone who would speak the truth always to Ghanaians. We cannot spend what we do not have. Our budget is always in deficit; we need to cut our coats according to the size of cloth we have. We need to be truthful to Ghanaians. For instance, if we cannot construct new roads and put together a proper maintenance review. We like constructing new things without providing any form of maintenance for the old ones.”
Sounding audacious, Agyepong who has been instrumental in the success of the NPP emphasized that it is imperative to ensure value for money and selflessness.
“The value system in this country has disappeared, it has collapsed. Those are the changes I believe it is time for a new dawn, a new dimension, and a new direction. It is very important that we drive that kind of change in this country and let people know that being in office doesn’t mean enriching yourself; rather, you’re there to serve,” he remarked while promising a lean government.
“Appointees go for vetting and you see chiefs in their full regalia escorting him to vetting. They create the impression that there’s something juicy to lick. We have become enablers. That has to stop.
“I will have no time for that kind of thing because I have no time for materialism. I will be very different, very tough. The constitution says we should have 19 ministers. I will not exceed that.”
In the last couple of months, a section of Ghanaians have been calling for the resignation of President Nana Akufo-Addo following record inflation and the government’s handling of the economic crisis.
The president has admitted that times are hard economically and that his government is working assiduously to provide relief to the citizenry.
These views were contained in his October 30, 2022 address to the nation on the state of the economy.
About 27 years ago, the biggest demonstration to have occurred in Ghana’s history took place.
Those at the forefront of this protest were Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Dr Charles Wreko Brobbey, Kwasi Pratt Jnr, Dr Nyaho Tamakloe, Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako, Akoto Ampaw, Victor Newman, Kwaku Opoku, Napoleon Abdulai and was also joined by some 100,000 people.
What was termed as the high cost of living and particularly, the imposition of Value Added Tax (VAT) on items fuelled the demonstration against the then Rawlings administration?
According to reports, it was a period in which able-bodied and hardworking citizens could not afford one decent meal a day for a family.
In addition, the drop-out rate in educational institutions was said to be rising at a very alarming rate.
However, what started as a peaceful protest turned gory when some unidentified assailants opened fire on the demonstrators.
Many sustained severe injuries and others died from the attacks.
Read the full story originally published on May 23, 1995 by The Statesman
The Stateman’s article on ‘Kume Preko’ and its aftermath
Kume Preko the demonstration against the high cost of living in Ghana particularly, the imposition of Value Added Tax (VAT) on items – has come and gone. But the after-effects of the bloody confrontation between the ACDRs and the marchers are far from over. For some families, the pain has just started. For those who lost husbands, the pain is even more as the burden of caring for the family will now fall on fewer shoulders. Naturally, reports of the horrors committed during the match keep filtering in. Ghana Review presents the story below which is culled from the Ghanaian Chronicle.
Tales of horror – Kume Preko victims recount their ordeal by Olivia Nyarko
After the dust slowly settled on the “Kume Preko” march, tales of untold horror and homicide have started filtering in.
CHRONICLE interviewed some of the relatives of those who were on admission at Korle-Bu for injuries sustained during the demonstration.
Kwabena Gyan, the brother of Yaw Atta who was shot in the chest and scrotum recounted what could well have happened in the back streets of war tone Liberia. The 26-year old secondhand shirts dealer said on that fateful Thursday, most of the sells around the Accra Central Railway station went to the station with the intent of watching the march just as they had done on other occasions when there were demonstrations.
Kwabena Gyan said the savage scene of a beggar who was shot in cold blood by the ACDRs sent all the boys running towards the Central Police Station for refuges, but the ACDRs would not let them go unscathed.
During this chase the brothers were separated. Each fled in the opposite direction. Narrating their ordeal, the wounded Yaw Atta said while standing at the Police station, he saw that his brother, who was at the Cocoa House, which is opposite the Police Station, was stranded on the almost empty street. “Out of panic I tried the last resort of calling and signalling to him to come over to my “safe haven”. Before I was through, blood was dripping from my jeans. I fell backwards, but hemmed in by the ACDR men who were shooting indiscriminately at this time, my brother could not cross over to pick me up”, he recounted.
Moved by his brother’s attempt to save his life, Kwabena Gyan said he braved it out on the street to his injured brother’s side. ” I lifted him from the pool of blood and by a hair’s breadth another bullet missed us from the same guy who shot my brother. After the firing died down, some sympathizers helped them to take him to the Accra Central District Police Headquarters, were he was sent first to the Police Hospital and then later to the Korle-Bu Emergency Ward”, he intimated.
With their double encounter with the ACDR man, Kwabena Gyan swore that he can easily identify him wherever and whenever
he meets him.
Abdulai Rahman Omanu, a cargo truck driver with registration number GM 5756 was also shot in the head at the Rawlings Park on the same Thursday.
Osmanu, who was on admission at Korle-Bu could not talk for three days. Finally when he could talk, he gave a tearful account of what happened to him. He said, that morning, he had just arrived from Kumasi at the CMB station but had no idea of the “Kume Preko” march , so he told his mate to look after the foodstuffs while he went to deliver an important message to a relative.
However, Osmanu never got to his destination. He said: “At the Rawlings Park I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my head. Then I fell on my face. Afterwards, I woke up in hospital”.
Meanwhile, a sympathiser, Mr Kwadjo Kusi, who had come to visit a friend at the Emergency ward is taking care of him and making efforts to contact Osmanu’s wife and two children in Kumasi.
According to another eyewitness who wanted to remain anonymous, a young boy was selling yoghurt was confronted by ACDRs around UTC. He said they seized his yoghurt, consumed some and threw the rest into a nearby gutter. Then one of them hit the boy’s head with an akpeteshie bottle.
Fearing for his life, the boy attempted to run, but about four of the ACDRs grabbed him from behind, while another shaved his hair clean with the broken bottle. Then they started a deadly game of piercing his clean-shaven head with pieces of the broken bottle. The more blood spattered out, the more the boy cried in agony, and the more thugs continued with their new found game, until he dropped unconscious in his own blood.
On that same street, about 25 men in ACDR T-shirts rushed on and beat workers at the Republic House mercilessly.
A worker of the Ghana Supply Commission (GSC) gave CHRONICLE an eye witness account. He said some of the workers were standing on the frontier of the Commercial Bank as they normally do, when a group of ACDR men attacked them. Mr Amoah, a worker at GSC sustained injuries on his shoulder. “We later sent him to the State Insurance Clinic, where he was treated.”
The source also revealed that the thugs hit Mr Dramanu, a Commercial Bank Official on the mouth with he leg of a broken chair. He said what infuriated him most was when a man who was standing by to pick a taxi was beaten until he was forced to obey nature’s call on the street. “Even when the man was trying to pick his file and mobitel which had been scattered on the floor, these ACDRs wouldn’t allow him. They rather ordered him to run towards the Bank for Housing and Construction”, the source said.
GUTA at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, November 2, 2022 hinted of a shortage of goods ahead of the festive season, citing the high cost of imports.
It said the containers coming out of the ports are nothing to write home about.
Public Relations Officer, Joseph Paddy told the media that people were not improving because of the rising cost of duty and freight charges as a result of the depreciation of the cedi.
“Containers that are coming out of the port are nothing good to write home about. People are not importing, people are keeping their money because if you import you can’t sell and break even or even maximize. So what we are going to see in the shortest possible time we are going to see a shortage of goods” he said.
“They prefer to keep their money in Treasury bills rather than import and lose”, he added.
Responding to GUTA’s assertion on Atinka TV’s morning show, Ghana Nie with Ekourba Gyasi Simpremu, Mr Michael Okyere Baafi was unhappy with GUTA, saying that they (GUTA) just causing fear and panic to the public.
“These are some of the things GUTA sometimes does, and we do not agree with them, and they also do not agree with us.” We have a very good working relationship with them, we engage them behind the scenes and meet with them. Sometimes, when you put these things out there, it creates a lot of tension. It creates a lot of unnecessary problems in the system. “You put it out there that GUTA warns of a shortage of goods ahead of Christmas, that is not a good statement to make.” “When it happens like that, you create fear and panic and unnecessary tension in the system,” he fumed.
Mr Michael Okyere Baafi said even if it was a fact and GUTA had something to say, they should have directed it to the Trade Ministry, adding that putting it in the public was not ideal because it may be that it is just a few of the traders who do not have the means to purchase goods from outside the country.
Based on what GUTA has stated, the Minister said those who import or sell goods and already have some available may start to hoard them with the intention of releasing them during Christmas.
“You cannot make those statements out there; when it happens like that, it creates unnecessary tension, and that is not what we want.”
“We all want the country to develop, but that is not the way to go,” he said. He explained that this is why the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo engaged the Bank of Ghana on the dollar rate so that the traders could go purchase.
He even said sometimes, the Bank of Ghana auctions the “dollars” for the traders to get easy access to the currency.
“When you go to the Bank of Ghana, you can get some to buy your goods, but you haven’t gone to see if you’ll get any, and you’re saying you’re not getting dollars.” “I do not believe it is appropriate,” he stated.
The heads of the Finance Minister and the Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Charles Adu Boahen, are being demanded by some 80 Members of Parliament (MP) and many Ghanaians, who believe they are unable to do their duties.
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, is not exempt as pressure mounts on these two leaders.
Contributing to “Kokrokoo” discussion programme on Peace FM Thursday morning, Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah, a Governance Lecturer at the Central University, says the BoG Governor must resign.
He partly blamed the Governor for the steep fall in the cedi, saying the latter is fully aware of the factors causing the depreciation but not doing anything to curtail them.
To buttress his point, he stated that there are some workers at the Bank of Ghana who sends their children to schools charging tuition fees in dollars and also added that there are currently some real estate businesses and other companies that quote their figures in dollars.
“Is the Governor of Bank of Ghana still around? If I were you, Governor of Bank of Ghana, I would have resigned . . . He should exit his office; if he doesn’t leave, President should fire him. He is not at the top of affairs,” Dr. Otchere-Ankrah fumed.
He asserts that the whole Majority Caucus now supports the group’s stance, despite the fact that the issue was originally raised by over 90 NPP MPs who organized a news conference to demand the resignation of the troubled minister or else they would boycott any government activity in the House.
The Suame MP speaking at a news conference on Thursday, November 3, 2022, explained, “even though the issue started with the group of 80 plus, the caucus meeting aligned with the position of that group, so it is no longer the cause of the 80 plus MPs. It is the agenda for the entire caucus and we are having some discussions on that.”
The Majority Leader who is also the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs had earlier stated on Accra-based Joy FM that there had been an attempt by a wealthy businessman to influence the MPs who organised the press conference to back down on their decision.
“I’m told on authority that some businessman came here and tried to do something. I was told that he came here and tried to mediate in his own way what he thinks the problem is…he was repelled by the people and told he was told not to involve himself. So he went away,” Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu told Joy News in an interview.
“With particular reference to the attempted bribery, it’s come before me. We’ll investigate if it is true and if it is true, establish the motive of that person. Sometimes, these things come up.
“You remember the issue of a minister who was nominated to appear before the vetting committee. There was an allegation that he had attempted to bribe some people or influence some people. Eventually, it turned out to be – I will not say falsehood – but an untruth,” he stated further.
He made this appeal in a meeting with the MPs at the Jubilee House shortly after they held the October 25 press conference to demand the sacking of Mr. Ofori-Atta.
The former Operations Manager of the Forestry Commission of Ghana, Charles Owusu, has taken a swipe at President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his continuous praise of his ministerial appointees.
In a Peace FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Charles Owusu, questioned whether Akufo-Addo will continue to say that his ministers are performing excellently given the deteriorating economic condition in the country.
He berated the appointees of the president, particularly those at the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana for going quiet as the country suffers.
“This is why sometimes, some of us ask President Akufo-Addo whether he thinks after all the happenings in the economy, the performance of his ministers is beyond excellent.
“… the prices of all items are increasing in the country. It is true that we are facing hardship but the problem I have with the Nana Addo government is that after the president has addressed the nation, all the heads of the ministers, departments and agencies have gone silent and the president is been criticised for everything.
“The Ministry of Finance has two ministers and two deputies what are we hearing from them? Akufo-Addo is being blamed for everything and they are sitting in some corner doing nothing, all of them are silent. Because if the officials of the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance start engaging Ghanaians the Ghana Cedi will not be depreciating as it,” he said in Twi.
In order to prevent driving Ghana into an economic crisis, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo vowed that his administration will ensure the judicious management of the country’s economy.
The President stated, “My Government continues to show its commitment and resolve to making sure that the habits and transgressions of prior managers of our public finances are not visited on this or future generations.”
The president demanded that the government make sure the nation maintains the upward trend it has been on since 2017.
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has emphasized his government’s commitment to prudently manage the Ghanaian economy and to ensure that it does not slip back into the economic mess that was bequeathed to him by the previous administration.
“My Government continues to demonstrate its commitment and determination to ensuring that the habits and sins of past managers of our public finances are no longer visited on this or future generations”, the President said.
Speaking at the 8th edition Ghana Economic Forum organised in Accra on Monday, the President said his administration has over the past three years in office been preoccupied with implementing policies that has since set the country on a path of prosperity and to the realisation of the broader vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid.
The President noted that Since 2017, the Ghanaian economy has been growing consistently above 7%, and, in the last two years, has been amongst the world’s fastest-growing economies.
“Indeed, the IMF projects Ghana’s economy, this year, to have one of the world’s highest growth rates of 7.6%. Inflation for September stood at 7.6%, in single digits, the lowest in over two decades. Our exports are growing healthily; our trade balance account, for the first time in more than a decade, recorded a surplus in 2017, maintained it in 2018, and we expect to maintain the surplus for this year as well. We have brought the fiscal deficit down to 4.5%. Our external reserves, as at June 2019, stood at 4.3 months of import cover.”
The President added that due to the prudent economic policy interventions instituted by his administration, the country’s macroeconomic indices are pointing in the right direction, “and it comes as no surprise, therefore, that, today, Ghana is the leading recipient of foreign direct investment in West Africa”.
Furthermore, the President said the policy interventions and prudent management of the resources have helped his government to finance his Government’s flagship policies and programmes such as the Free Senior High School, which is currently enrolling some 1.2 million pupils; the programme for “Planting for Food and Jobs”; which has led to the revival of Ghanaian agriculture, bringing in its wake a bumper harvest in 2018 and exports of significant quantities of food stuffs to Ghana’s neighbours, with the same expected for 2019.
The President cited the 1-District-1-Factory initiative; the 1-Village-1-Dam policy; the restoration of allowances of nursing and teacher trainees, that were scrapped by the Mahama government; the employment of one hundred thousand (100,000) graduates under the Nation Builders Corp; and the recruitment of sixty thousand (60,000) young men and women under the Youth in Afforestation Programme as examples of some of the policies that have been implemented since he assumed office.
The president said, the gains made in in achieving financial and economic stability should serve as the foundations for the private sector to build on.
“The actual building will have to be constructed by the private sector, because my Government believes in the primacy of the private sector, and we will continue to improve the business environment, and offer the critical support needed for the private sector to survive and thrive”.
Dr Ernest Addison, Governor, Bank of Ghana in his remarks said the Central bank remains committed to the broader framework for a sustained stabilised fiscal regime and public expenditure management.
Adding that the policy initiatives and their implementation has since been yielding the right results.
Chief Executive Officer, of the Business and Financial Times, Dr Edith Dankwa who spoke at the forum, emphasised the role of the media providing the platform for critical minds to deliberate on measures that would help transform the Ghanaian economy.
She said although the fundamentals of the Ghanaian economy has been tested by both internal and external factors in the past, it has remained resilient and thus the need to make the necessary sacrifices to ensure that the fundamentals are sustained.
Managing Director of Barclays Bank Ms Abena Osei-Poku commended government for creating the forum for private sector engagements on moving the country forward.
She said the Forum coming at a time of The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), gives the country the leverage to harness the potentials therein for the rapid development of the continent at large.
She added that steps taken by the Central Bank to clean the banking sector, has helped strengthened the financial sector to engineer the needed growth.
The adoption of less hazardous mining and extraction methods for gold is guaranteed by mineral processing technology, which also prevents the discharge of tailings into waterways and the installation of equipment like Changfas in or on rivers.
Without employing hazardous mercury, the mining operations are delivered as fully integrated modular systems from ore to gold dore or packaged mineral concentrates, as required.
The equipment increases the productivity of miners’ work and ensures improved gold recovery.
In an interview with the B&FT, Stephen Yeboah – Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Commodity Monitor Ltd., a Ghanaian-owned trading, logistics and research company – said his outfit’s aim of introducing the new technology is to join the fight against illegal mining, especially considering the devastation it is having on water-bodies in mining areas across the country.
“The goal of rolling out the mercury-free mineral processing technology is to assist artisanal and small-scale miners with efficient mining plants and equipment that achieve three basic goals – high tonnes per hour processing, no mercury use, and high gold recovery.
“Our technology ensures very high gold recovery. The current processing method allows miners to recover just about 35 percent of their gold. This new mercury-free technology recovers more than 90 percent of gravity-recoverable gold.
“Our technology contributes to the fight against galamsey. The good news is that government, through the Minerals Commission, has made our technology the main mineral processing technology for all community mining areas. The 100 plants purchased were commissioned by the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in June 2022. This is a significant and critical step taken by government,” he stated.
Mr. Yeboah further stated that the new technology will ensure that mercury in mining, which is extremely hazardous to humans due to its serious health implications, will be a thing of the past.
“More worrying is the unregulated, high use and exposure of mercury in gold recovery by artisanal and small-scale miners. Mercury use in this sector, globally, is estimated to be over 2,000 tonnes each year – with virtually all of the chemicals released finding their way into the atmosphere, water-bodies and land.
“This puts miners and communities at risk of permanent brain-damage,seizures, vision and hearing loss, and delayed and impaired childhood development,” he added.
The mining sector contributes significantly to the country’s merchandise export earnings as well as domestic revenues. The sector contributed circa US$6.8billion in export earnings for 2020 and US$5.1billion in 2021.
The Artisanal and small-scale mining subsector contributes about 40 percent of the country’s total gold production and generates both direct and indirect employment, with more than one million people directly engaged in the subsector and an additional four million people indirectly dependent on it for their livelihoods.
Thus, Mr. Yeboah said, given the mining sector’s contribution to the country’s economic development, instead of banning these activities appropriate technologies must be used and the traditional approach changed to eliminate the present devastating impacts on the environment.
“The small mining sector is a huge one with about one million people. If you go to some communities, more than 90 percent of the young people are into mining; so imagine stopping it. Small-scale mining was banned initially for two years but the problems still persisted, so the sustainable way of dealing with it is to change the way they work and not a blanket ban on the activities,” he said.
For the many decades of small scale mining operations, there has been unfettered dependence on mercury as the main source of gold recovery in Ghana. The consequence is that abandoned mine waste usually contains high mercury concentrations due to inefficiency.
“Our mercury-free technology utilises ‘soil-washing’ as a remediation technique – which means mercury contents are extracted from the mine waste and tailings to prevent further washdown into rivers and water sources.”
Mr. Yeboah is confident the fight against galamsey can be won by making this technology available to all artisanal and small-scale miners, saying a mercury-free way of mining is the right path to take.
“It is the surest way of leveraging transformation in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector,” he said. It will accelerate implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which Ghana ratified in 2017 to reduce and eliminate mercury-use in the minerals sector.
Currently, he said, over 20 of the mercury-free mining machines have been deployed in mining communities such as Wa, Bongo and Tarkwa, among others.
Veteran broadcaster, Kwasi Kyei Darkwah (KKD), is wondering how much the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo owes his cousin, Ken Ofori-Atta, for which he cannot sack him from government.
Speaking on Accra-based Joy News, the media personality claimed that the finance minister’s continuous stay in office could be due to the undisclosed debt.
He stated that parliament in their quest to trigger a motion for a vote of censure on Ken Ofori-Atta, must also probe for any debt Akufo-Addo may be owing him.
He noted that the finance minister’s performance in the current administration has been abysmal, therefore, he needs to be shown the exit.
“Ken must go. Ken must go…How much money do you alone want to have? Why? Databank alone, how many of your staff are in government at the moment?
“How much money does Nana Addo owe you? In fact, Parliament must ask this question … I think the President owes him.
“Because if the President doesn’t owe him, what is it that is so beholding to this gentleman that with what he’s done with our economy, he is still allowed to be at post?” KKD asked in his interview.
KKD’s concerns add to the consistent calls for the removal of the finance minister due to the current economic hardship the country is facing.
These calls have become rife across both social and traditional media, with many accusing the Finance Minister of steering Ghana’s economy into a ditch.
Members of the Minority have signed a motion for a vote of censure on Ken Ofori-Atta
As part of their reasons, the minority cite the overall mismanagement of the economy and ethical concerns, among others.
Parliament is yet to hear the motion with the Speaker having added it to this week’s order of business.
They said that the minister’s “abysmal performance in managing the economy of Ghana” was the cause of this.
The Union claims that the quick depreciation of the Ghana cedi has a significant impact on their working capital and, consequently, their overall standard of living.
A release from October 31, 2022 stated that “the effects of exchange rates are actually having a terrible effect on enterprises, and all our investments are going down the drain.”
The Union also threatened to start a “huge” demonstration on November 19, 2022, if their demand was not met.
The release signed by the General Secretary of the Union, Benjamin Owusu Yankey, stated: “However, we are giving the President two weeks ultimatum if he fails to release Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta from his position as the Finance Minister of the Republic of Ghana, we will stage a huge demonstration against him (H. E. Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo) on November 19, 2022, at 8:00 am, at Obra Spot, Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.”
ADUG has also called on other trade unions to join to make these demands from the government.
“We are calling on all concerned importers and traders whose businesses have been negatively affected by the high exchange rates (US Dollar) as a result of the poor policy decisions by the Finance Minister should join hands with us to stage a demonstration against the President for his refusal to sack the Finance Minister,” they added.
Lawrence Nana Asiamah Hanson known in showbiz circles as Bullgod has criticized President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo over what he described as “arrogant” posture of the country’s leader in the midst of the economic crisis.
The president in an interview on OTEC FM in Kumasi mentioned that some utterances by some citizens appear to suggest that he is governing the country from a distance.
On the back of comments by the people of Kwabre to vote against the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2024 election due to poor road infrastructure in the area, the president said he was not threatened, adding that threats do not frighten him.
Making a submission on GhanaWeb TV’s E-Forum, an episode that focused on how the economic hardship is affecting creatives, Bullgod, a renowned artiste manager, slammed the president questioning the basis for his utterances.
The artiste manager without equivocation said he was irked by the posture and attempts by some sycophants to fight persons who criticize the president.
“You know the annoying bit? People sit back and say ‘why are you making this personal?’ What should we make it? This is personal, it’s affecting all of us. And when you mention Nana Addo’s name, they say ‘why are you mentioning his name?’ Is he not in the office?” Bullgod asked.
“The guy is so arrogant. He says we speak as if he doesn’t live in this country,” Bullgod continued. “Herh! Massa, you dey pay light bill? You dey pay for fuel? Don’t come dey talk the thing you dey talk. We bi kiddies; make we respect you. Talk make we respect you,” he said in Pidgin English – to wit, do you pay for utilities? Do you pay for anything in this country? You’re an elderly man; speak in a manner that courts respect.”
Meanwhile, Bullgod has called for the resignation or impeachment of the president for his abysmal performance. He told host Abrantepa that the economy has been badly managed and that calls for Finance Minister Ken Ofor-Attah should rather be directed at the president instead of the appointee.
The year was 2016, and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was the vice presidential candidate at the time.
Dr. Bawumia was everywhere, criticizing the Mahama government in forums and economic lectures while also presenting what at the time seemed to be specially crafted answers to the economic problems the Mahama government was currently facing.
The reintroduction of Ghana to the IMF in 2016 was one of the many topics on which Bawumia displayed his alleged better economic understanding.
In a video that has been making the rounds on social media, the man christened ‘Economic Messiah’ broke down the various issues that culminated in Ghana seeking help from the IMF once more.
He said, “This is how we ended up in the IMF. We were spending too much relative to the revenue which is true. We were borrowing too much which is true. Your external payment position has deteriorated, which is true and your growth is reducing so you ended up at the IMF and the IMF will impose certain conditions which are true, and if you don’t do certain things right the anchor will not hold which is also true. So, I’m not quite sure what it is which is not true what I said. The supporters of this government and this government itself are reluctant to accept.”
Six years on, Bawumia has ascended to the role of Vice President and his government has choked on its own puke by returning the IMF.
The move became necessary after Ghana was unable to access funds from the international market. Ghana’s debt has become unsustainable amid rapid inflation and the free fall of the Ghana cedi.
The country is expecting to receive about $3 billion dollars from the IMF to shore up its reserves and boost investor confidence.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has taken a swipe at his critics over the ongoing negotiations by his government to secure an enhanced domestic programme (EDP) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the country.
The programme is expected to repair, in the short term, the defects of the 2022 budget, which is said to have been thrown out of gear owing to the global economic crises occasioned by the Russia-Ukraine war.
Some critics, notably economist Kwame Pianim, have taken on the government about its commitment to the negotiations, claiming they are not going well.
“The IMF negotiation is not going well [and] I know this for a fact,” Mr Pianim had stated last week in an interview with TV3‘s Paa Kwesi Asare.
He called for the sacking of the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, whom he described as without credibility to lead negotiations with the Fund, precisely because he did not support the idea of going there in the early stages.
“What the IMF is waiting for is a bold, credible pronouncement from the president as he did over the Covid.”
The latter the President did on Sunday, October 30 but during his national broadcast, he stated emphatically that the negotiations are going well.
“I am able to report to you, my fellow Ghanaians, that the negotiations to secure a strong IMF Programme, which will support the implementation of our Post COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth and additional funding to support the 2023 Budget and development programme, are at advanced stages, and are going well.”
President Akufo-Addo assured that when a deal is hopefully reached by the end of the year, his government’s economic measures will be further given credence.
“We have gone to the Fund to repair, in the short term, our public finances, and restore our balance of payments, whilst we continue to work on the medium to long-term structural changes that are at the heart of our goal of constructing a resilient, robust Ghanaian economy, and building a Ghana Beyond Aid.”
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said that his widely hailed statement about the government knowing how to bring the economy back to life at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic was not made in jest.
In his October 30 address on the economy, President Akufo-Addo pointed to the growth trajectory of the economy amid the pandemic.
He opined that the economy grew at a rate of 7% until Russia invaded Ukraine, further worsening the devastating impact Covid-19 had brought onto the economy.
“We could all see in real-time the devastation that was being wreaked on economies during the pandemic, but I doubt that anyone imagined the extent of the damage. Our economy here in Ghana, like many, many others around the globe, was thrown into turmoil.
“When I said, at the height of the COVID pandemic, that we knew what to do to bring the economy back to life, but not how to bring people back to life, it was not said in jest. We had done it before, and we were on course to doing it again. Ghana’s economy grew by a remarkable 5.4% in 2021, signifying a strong recovery from the 0.5% growth recorded the previous year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In fact, in the last quarter of 2021, our economy grew at seven percent (7%), only for the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the first quarter of this year to aggravate the effects of COVID-19 and plunge the global economy into even greater turmoil from which it has not yet recovered,” he said
During one of President Akufo-Addo’s Covid-19 updates in 2020, he emphasized the need for the government to focus on deploying measures to save human lives amid the ravaging pandemic.
“We know how to bring the economy back to life. What we do not know is how to bring people back to life,” he said.
The statement by the president won him plaudits from world leaders and heads of relevant agencies and non-governmental organizations.
In the midst of economic turmoil, with many Ghanaians reeling under economic hardship, they have asked the president to actualize his statement by restoring the economy.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the exercise to close down forex buraux that are not complying with the regulations will continue.
This forms part of the measures being introduced by the government to tackle the economic challenges especially the Cedi’s poor performance against the Dollar.
Mr Akufo-Addo said in his address to the nation on Sunday October 30 that “The following actions have been taken thus far: 1) enhanced supervisory action by the Bank of Ghana in the forex bureau markets and the black market to flush out illegal operators, as well as ensuring that those permitted to operate legally abide by the market rules.”
“Already some forex bureaus have had their licenses revoked, and this exercise will continue until complete order is restored in the sector,” he said.
The other measures are “Fresh inflows of dollars are providing liquidity to the foreign exchange market, and addressing the pipeline demand;
“The Bank of Ghana has given its full commitment to the commercial banks to provide liquidity to ensure the wheels of the economy continue to run in a stabilized manner, till the IMF Programme kicks in and the financing assurances expected from other partners also come in;
“Government is working with the Bank of Ghana and the oil producing and mining companies to introduce a new legal and regulatory framework to ensure that all foreign exchange earned from operations in Ghana are, initially, paid to banks domiciled in Ghana
“The Bank of Ghana will enhance its gold purchase programme.”
In accordance with the provisions of Sections 11 (1) and 12 (f) of the Foreign Exchange Act 2006 (723), the Bank of Ghana has revoked the licence of Trade House and Airport City Forex Bureaux Limited effective October 27, 2022.
This was based on the Non-compliance with rules governing the operations of foreign exchange bureaux including directive on customer identification and issuance of electronic receipt (Bank of Ghana Notice Number: BG/GOV/SEC/2018/16), (i)The Bank of Ghana reserves the right to revoke the licence of any forex bureau if: in the Bank’s opinion, the conduct of any forex bureau is detrimental to the success of the Forex Bureau Scheme;
According to the Head of Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department at the Bank of Ghana, Yaw Sapong, the exercise targeted at ensuring sanity in the forex market is expected to continue across the capital city, Accra in the Greater Accra region.
The two forex bureaus are under the same ownership and were detected by a mystery shopping exercise by the central bank.
The Head of Other Financial Institutions Supervision department of the Central Bank noted that they were not issuing electronic receipts and not requesting valid proof of identity.
Mr. Sarpong said the “two bureaus on several occasions have been found not to be complying.”
“The way they set their prices are detrimental and we think that the licenses of the two bureaus have to be revoked,” he added.
The current economic difficulties should not be used as a justification for raising prices in order to achieve high profit margins, the president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has urged business people.
As the nation goes through a challenging time, he urged that the traders should be on the lookout for the larger welfare of society.
In his Sunday, October 30 speech to the nation on the economy, the president acknowledged that traders have raised product prices as a result of recent price volatility but advised them to avoid trying to make money off the economic downturn.
“I hear from the market queens also that another factor fueling the high prices is the high margins that some traders are slapping on goods, for fear of future higher costs. I say to our traders, we are all in this together. Please let us be measured in the margins we seek.
“I have great respect and admiration for the ingenuity and hard work of our traders, especially those that take on the distribution of foodstuffs around the country, and I would hesitate to join in calling them names. I do make a heartfelt appeal that we all keep an eye out for the greater good, and not try to make the utmost profits out of the current difficulties,” Akufo-Addo said.
In recent times, prices of goods such as rice, cooking oil, and other essentials have skyrocketed with many Ghanaians lamenting the hikes.
The Ghana Statistical Service pegged the country’s inflation rate for the month of September at 37.2%, from 33.9% in August. According to the data, food inflation for the month of September was 37.8%.
Akufo-Addo in his address admitted that the country was in crisis while rallying support for various government interventions to stem the tide.
“We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time.
“But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems, but the long-term structural problems that have bedeviled our economy,” he said.
Hours after his much-awaited address to the nation on the economy, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is topped trends on social media platforms, particularly Twitter.
Most users of the micro-blogging app have taken a swipe at the president over what they say was his lack of concrete steps to alleviate the plight of Ghanaians bearing the brunt of economic hardship and also his failure to use the address to dismiss some of his appointees.
Others have also been comparing former President John Dramani Mahama’s October 27 address on the economy to Akufo-Addo’s.
Persons who are making the comparison believe former President Mahama’s address was much better than President Akufo-Addo’s who regurgitated past comments on the economy.
Akufo-Addo in his address admitted that the country was in crisis while rallying support for various government interventions to stem the tide.
“We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time.
“But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems, but the long-term structural problems that have bedeviled our economy,” he said.
But like before, President Akufo-Addo blamed the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as causative factors for the economic woes.
He also outlined measures adopted by the cabinet after its 3-day retreat to discuss measures relating to the economy.
The measures include the following:
1) enhanced supervisory action by the Bank of Ghana in the forex bureau markets and the black market to flush out illegal operators, as well as ensuring that those permitted to operate legally abide by the market rules. Already some forex bureaus have had their licenses revoked, and this exercise will continue until complete order is restored in the sector;
2) Fresh inflows of dollars are providing liquidity to the foreign exchange market, and addressing the pipeline demand;
3) the Bank of Ghana has given its full commitment to the commercial banks to provide liquidity to ensure the wheels of the economy continue to run in a stabilized manner, till the IMF Programme kicks in and the financing assurances expected from other partners also come in;
4) Government is working with the Bank of Ghana and the oil producing and mining companies to introduce a new legal and regulatory framework to ensure that all foreign exchange earned from operations in Ghana are, initially, paid to banks domiciled in Ghana to help boost the domestic foreign exchange market; and
5) the Bank of Ghana will enhance its gold purchase programme.
Below are some comments from Twitter:
You listen to Mahama speak on the economy and you listen to Nana Addo speak on the economy and you wonder who the real President is.
The year was 2016, and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was the vice presidential candidate at the time.
Dr. Bawumia was everywhere, criticizing the Mahama government in forums and economic lectures while also presenting what at the time seemed to be specially crafted answers to the economic problems the Mahama government was currently facing.
The reintroduction of Ghana to the IMF in 2016 was one of the many topics on which Bawumia displayed his alleged better economic understanding.
In a video that has been making the rounds on social media, the man christened ‘Economic Messiah’ broke down the various issues that culminated in Ghana seeking help from the IMF once more.
He said, “This is how we ended up in the IMF. We were spending too much relative to the revenue which is true. We were borrowing too much which is true. Your external payment position has deteriorated, which is true and your growth is reducing so you ended up at the IMF and the IMF will impose certain conditions which are true, and if you don’t do certain things right the anchor will not hold which is also true. So, I’m not quite sure what it is which is not true what I said. The supporters of this government and this government itself are reluctant to accept.”
Six years on, Bawumia has ascended to the role of Vice President and his government has choked on its own puke by returning the IMF.
The move became necessary after Ghana was unable to access funds from the international market. Ghana’s debt has become unsustainable amid rapid inflation and the free fall of the Ghana cedi.
The country is expecting to receive about $3 billion dollars from the IMF to shore up its reserves and boost investor confidence.
Hopeson Adorye, the unsuccessful New Patriotic Party candidate for Kpone Katamanso, accused Martin Kpebu, a private attorney, of being demonic in his recent public lobbying against the government.
Hopeson Adorye claims that the lawyer is disguising a political purpose behind a neutral persona in order to forward his agenda to run as the opposition National Democratic Congress‘ parliamentary candidate for the Kpandai Constituency.
“Are you aware that he is running in the Kpandai Constituency?
Yes, Kpandai’s NDC parliamentary candidate.
Do you know that he has met Mahama and that everything has been resolved?
While appearing as a guest on Oman FM’s Boiling Point show, Hopeson Adorye made some allegations.
He however added that the New Patriotic Party will be ready to thwart the diabolic political agenda of Martin Kpebu.
“The thing is if you want to speak be bold and come out as an NDC member, don’t pretend to be a neutral person,” he added.
Lawyer Martin Kpebu has become a staunch critic of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government amidst the current economic hardship in the country.
Mr Kpebu has commenced a campaign calling for the president’s resignation and as part of his advocacy, the legal practitioner is organising a demonstration against the president.
The demonstration dubbed ‘Kume Preko Reloaded’ is scheduled to take place on Saturday, November 5, 2022, in Accra.
In a recent interview on Neat FM, Martin Kbepu justified his call for the president’s resignation saying “what Ghanaians can do to get the president removed is to organize demonstrations. The police have given me permission for the ‘Kumi preko reloaded’ demo next Saturday, November 5. It starts from the Obra Spot at 7:00 am; every Ghanaian should make it a point to be there.
“If the president does not resign by then, we demonstrate and present him a petition that we have had enough of him, and he should step down,” he added.
The address by the president will be his first major speech on the current state of the Ghanaian economy which has over the past weeks seen a significant rise in inflation among others.
Hopeson Adorye makes vile allegations against Martin Kpebu, cites alleged plot to be NDC MP
On Tuesday, October 25, 2022, the New Patriotic Party, led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, NPP, government experienced turmoil as the majority of the NPP caucus in Parliament pushed for the dismissal of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
Following unsuccessful attempts to persuade President Akufo-Addo to act on their demand to fire his cousin, more than 80 members of parliament decided to publicly demand that Ofori-Atta be fired.
Following their announcement, there was a large meeting at Jubilee House that, according to reports, was contentious and heated, followed by over twenty meetings between members of the majority caucus of Parliament and other interested parties, as confirmed by Nana Ayew Afriyie, the MP for Efiduase Asokore.
The major fallout from all these meetings was that Ken Ofori-Atta was placed on borrowed time and that a decision about his future would be made after he is done presenting and overseeing to the appropriation of the 2023 budget statement and sealing a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The latest action by the NPP MPs came on the back of several calls for the President to sack Ofori-Atta.
The calls have often been met with excuses, justifications or defensive posturing by the President on why his cousin will continue to man the post.
Here are five of those reasons
Akufo-Addo satisfied with Ofori-Atta’s performance
In the view of President Akufo-Addo, the recent economic challenges are not entirely the fault of Ofori-Atta but rather due to external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
The president is convinced that until COVID struck, Ken Ofori-Atta was leading the country’s economy on the right path and that he cannot be blamed for the current woes.
“I came to office in 2017 when we were under an IMF programme. This same Ken Ofori-Atta was able to manage the economy for the first three to four years. We were then one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. We had an average growth rate of 7% a year.
“For someone who has been able to do all these, how do I turn my back on him? For me, his performance has been excellent. That is why I have great difficulty in understanding what is going on,” the President told Kumasi-based OTEC FM in an interview.
“I do not accept that criticism because the reasons why we got into the situation we find ourselves in have very little to do with us. In fact, the IMF confirmed this,” President Akufo-Addo posited.
IMF Deal
In the meeting with the aggrieved majority MPs, President Akufo-Addo is reported to have told the MPs to allow Ken Ofori-Atta seal a bailout plan for the country with the IMF before he is kicked out.
Reports and media statements by some persons who attended the meeting were that the president is convinced a deal could be reached with the IMF in three weeks and a decision will be made afterwards.
NDC’s Otukonor bares it all; talks about NDC polls, economy, others
Incumbent NDC Deputy General Secretary, Peter Boamah Otukonor bared it all when he sat with Nimatu Yakubu Atouyese on GhanaWeb’s Election Desk ahead of the NDC’s General Elections in December 2022.
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2023 Budget
With just a few weeks left for the 2023 budget to be presented to Parliament and the public, the preparation of the budget is at the concluding stages and with Ken Ofori-Atta being the one who has supervised the process, the president deems it fit to allow him continue in the role until the budget is presented.
Speaking to Oyerepa TV, the Member of Parliament for Efiduase Asokore, Nana Ayew Afriyie, stated that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has promised to act in a manner that will not require the MPs to come back to him.
He said “He [Akufo-Addo] promised us this way, after the end of the budget it won’t be necessary for us to come to him because of what he would do about the finance minister, because by then, there will be no need to come back to him.”
Family relations
According to critics, President Akufo-Addo is unwilling to relieve Ken Ofori-Atta of his post due to the relationship they both share.
Ken Ofori-Atta is among the relatives of Akufo-Addo who are holding government positions and the president is reported to be loyal to his family members hence the unwillingness to sack Ken Ofori-Atta.
As stated by Eugene Antwi the Member of Parliament for Subin, the president is being blinded by his relations with Ofori-Atta.
“New Patriotic Party, (NPP) is running a democracy and not a family dynasty. I do not think it is too much to ask the President to ask two people to step aside from his government,” he added.
GhanaWeb Mundial: Qatar hosting the most expensive World Cup amid human rights concerns
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Data Bank investment in campaign
The Deputy Minority Chief Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim alleged this week that President Akufo-Addo in a cabinet meeting told some ministers who wanted Ofori-Atta out that, his cousin used Databank to finance his campaign and for that reason, he is not going to fire him.
“We are the representatives of the people. The minority leader didn’t do a press conference. He told the chairman of the business committee that, as representatives of the people and as duty bearers, we must move a motion to call for the head of the finance minister.
“So, if our brothers in the majority [caucus] believe in this, what they should do is to support the call by the minority leader and the motion by the minority leader for the dismissal of the finance minister”.
He continued: “I see their press briefing as long overdue. If they meant well, the day they went to a cabinet meeting and President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo pointed to them: ‘And you want me to sack my finance minister? When he was sponsoring my campaign, where were you?’ … was the day we were expecting them to come out with such a statement”.
But now, he pointed out, “they came to correct the communication outside to say that he [Ken Ofori-Atta] performed in the first three years and that’s why he’s [President Akufo-Addo] not sacking him”.
“This is not what he [the president] told them in the cabinet [meeting]”, Mr Ibrahim insisted, noting: “The reason why Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo doesn’t want to change Ken Ofori-Atta is that Ken Ofori-Atta used his Databank to support his campaign to become president and, therefore, the finance ministry is a compensation for the finance minister and that’s why he’s not sacking him”.
“He [the president] said this to them [majority caucus] in the cabinet [meeting]. The ministers were there and he threatened them. You didn’t come out with such a statement”.
Habib Iddrisu, the deputy majority chief whip, has criticized private attorney Martin Kpebu for asking for the impeachment of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo because to the weak performance of the Ghanaian economy.
The majority chief whip, who is also the Tolon constituency’s representative in parliament, claims that Mr. Kpebu’s call, which he bases on Article 69 of the 1992 Constitution, is without foundation.
“For such a person to make such a call is reckless.
When he appeared as a guest on TV3’s New Day program, he questioned whether it was “irresponsible in the sense that you are suggesting we should utilize Article 69 to impeach the president on what grounds?”
While seeking to accuse the legal practitioner of engaging in hypocrisy, Mr Iddrisu questioned why Martin Kpebu never made a similar call when Ghana went through economic difficultly under the previous administration.
“Where was he when we were at IMF, when public sector recruitment was frozen, dumsor was everywhere that was collapsing businesses… when a lot of things were going wrong, did he say we should invoke that?” he said.
The deputy majority chief whip also added that “Why didn’t he say that in the previous administration when President John Mahama was supervising an actually messed up economy up to today? What is happening today apart from the external factors is not from today. It started from somewhere.”
The Tolon MP went on to point out that Ghana’s current economic challenge is largely a result of the impact of external factors and not mismanagement on the part of the Akufo-Addo-led government.
“We are in difficult and trying moments that is a fact; COVID has affected every economy, Russia-Ukraine war has affected every economy and other internal factors that have happened. Yes, if you want to actually say that things are not going well the president should sit up, the president should give us answers and other things, these are calls in the right direction. But to say that we should invoke Article 69, on what basis?” he questioned.
Martin Kpebu has become a staunch critic of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government amidst the current economic hardship in the country. He has called on parliament to impeach the president.
Mr Kpebu has also commenced a campaign calling for the president’s resignation and as part of his advocacy, the legal practitioner is organising a demonstration against the president.
The demonstration dubbed ‘Kume Preko Reloaded’ is scheduled to take place on Saturday, November 5, 2022, in Accra.
In a recent interview on Neat FM, Martin Kbepu justified his call for the president’s resignation saying “what Ghanaians can do to get the president removed is to organize demonstrations. The police have given me permission for the ‘Kumi preko reloaded’ demo next Saturday, November 5. It starts from the Obra Spot at 7:00 am; every Ghanaian should make it a point to be there.
“If the president does not resign by then, we demonstrate and present him a petition that we have had enough of him, and he should step down,” he added.
The address by the president will be his first major speech on the current state of the Ghanaian economy which has over the past weeks seen a significant rise in inflation among others.
Following a three-day cabinet retreat, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has decided on crucial measures to restart the economy, according to the information minister, ahead of his much anticipated October 30 economic talk.
Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah stated that the choices took into account interactions with different economic actors as well as suggestions from the current negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.
He said that the choices made would ultimately address the nation’s economic problems.
“This follows a week of interactions with various economic actors and inputs from the IMF negotiations so far. Tomorrow evening we start the exercise of rebooting as the Prez outlines measures. #ResolvingTogether,” Oppong-Nkrumah tweeted on Saturday, October 29, 2022.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo last Wednesday concluded consultations with economic players ahead of the three-day Cabinet retreat to resolve the pressure on the economy and the rising cost of living, GNA reported.
The consultations, which started on Tuesday at the Jubilee House, Accra, were to enable the government to get the players up to speed with measures being adopted to mitigate current economic challenges and to get their buy-in to those arrangements.
Top issues that were discussed over the two-day period included updates on the government’s economic programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the depreciation of the Cedi, and the collaborative effort needed to get the economy back on track.
Some eight stakeholders, including the Association of Ghana Industries, the Ghana Association of Banks, Transport Operators, Forex Bureau Association of Ghana, Market Women, the Ghana Employers Association, the Private Enterprise Federation, and the Trades Union Congress held “candid” discussions with the President and his economic management team.
Before its release on Tuesday, 25 October 2022, the Ghanaian musician and entrepreneur referenced it in a Facebook post written in the form of a letter and addressed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
In the Sunday, October 23 letter, the artiste born Emmanuel Andrews Samini expressed worry and regret supporting Nana Akufo-Addo to win the 2016 presidential election.
“Dear @NAkufoAddo [Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo] I supported you to bring change and stability. I believed in the vision and your concept of change! But with 2 [more] years to go, my soul bleeds,” Samini bemoaned.
He added: “Our investments wash away daily as the dollar openly whips our cedi. Your people are crying. We cannot pretend all is well.”
Before reminding president Akufo-Addo that he begged Ghanaian voters to be given the mandate Mr Samini who is currently the Student Representative Council (SRC) president at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) noted, in hope, that: “God has blessed Ghana with” the “ability to stare difficulty right in the face and say, it will ‘Be Alright’ [prayer emojis].”
“Ghana must work again!” he strongly stated and bemoaned: “The indiscipline in high and low places of government must be checked.”
“We go keep hope alive and continue to soldier on,” he encouraged his 1.2 million Facebook fans. “What’s a man without hope? We can only continue to pray for a better tomorrow. To all my high graders out there, I say it again: We will ‘Be Alright!!!’ [fire emojis].”
He attached the cover art for the song to the post.
On Thursday, 27 October 2022, the multiple award-winning singer shared the official music video for ‘Be Alright’ with fans on YouTube. It displays happy times at sea on a speed boat with a cosmopolitan group, as the artiste waves the flag of Ghana. There are other scenes of children playing football in the sand and in yet another scene, he spends time with a woman who plays his lover in the video.
It’s a feel-good reggae song that opens with the words: “I’ve got life so I know I’m blessed. I step into my day with minimum stress. Give thanks for life because today is a gift and tomorrow is a wish; no man can predict.”
In the 3-minute and 31-second song, the High-Grade Family boss also noted the harsh times being experienced by Ghanaians and people around the world: “These days not so easy…” but stressed in the chorus: “I know everything’s gonna be alright. We gonna be alright.”
The official statement from Samini who is also, by the power of the Wa paramount chief, the Pibilii Naa (King of the Rocks) reads: “’Be Alright’ is the first single from my ‘Sticks n Locs’ EP. I wrote this song to promote gratitude and good vibes and to tell anyone who listens that there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Every situation or struggle that you find yourself in is usually only as bad as you think it is. Faith and love always, Samini.”
Phaize believes that as a mouthpiece of his fans, followers, and the general public, he has a responsibility to speak up and represent them when the need arises and for that reason, he composed ‘Metu Afri Ghana’, a song representing the cries of the average Ghanaian youth.
In this song, Phaize stated high cost of living, unavailability of jobs, unfavorable economy for entrepreneurs and investment, and high cost of fuel are among many other reasons forcing the workforce of the country to seek greener pastures elsewhere.
In a recent interview with Code Micky, the young musician said things are no more funny as a sachet of water is even becoming a luxury.
“Things are not easy, the youth are ready to work but the hardship is driving all of us away. You work hard and there’s nothing to show for it. We all want to leave Ghana and go outside to work and make some good returns,” he said.
Phaize is a budding Ghanaian musician who sings to inspire, entertain and educate. He featured on Shatta Wale’s ‘Ahodwo Las Vegas’ and has also worked with Fameye, Flowking Stone and many other Ghanaian musicians.