Mr. Ignatius Kwasi Afrifa, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party and a Patron of Loyal Ladies Western Region chapter has said the impact of the Covid-19 on the cedi woes is far better than the rate at which it depreciated under the Mahama regime.
According to Kwasi Afrifa, the Economic Management Team led by Dr. Bawumia was highly focused on lifting Ghanaians out of the current challenges caused by factors including the financial sector clean up, the excess capacity charges and the COVID 19 pandemic.
“The cedi continues to depreciate to the dollar and fuel prices too rising indiscriminately due to the international boycott of Russian oil, which makes the demand for fuel higher with fewer oil for distribution.”
He maintained that the economic hardship affecting growth and productivity in the country was primarily driven by the Covid 19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine crisis and not leadership incompetence as perceived by the opposition members.
Kwasi Afrifa disclosed this in a radio interview when he took a bite on the state of the economy public lecture which was delivered by H.E Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Vice President of the Republic who doubles as the head of the economic management team on Thursday, April 7th during the 2022 Tertiary Education Students Confederacy Network of the NPP, Tescon conference at Kasoa.
Mr. Kwasi Afrifa mentioned that the delivery of the lecture which was backed with figures, data, factual comparisons, and explanations finally diffused all the propaganda on the state of the country’s economy by the opposition NDC party.
He noted that the lecture was targeted to reach every Ghanaian irrespective of their educational, social or class.
He explained, there’s no denying fact that prices of goods and services are going up. “The Russian-Ukrainian war has caused global chain disruptions which has directly affected many countries globally some of which include USA, Germany, Spain, UK, Asia, and most European countries of which Ghana which is a middle-income economy is no exception,” he stressed.
Despite these challenges, he intimated that the growth of the economy is very stable and stronger than the erstwhile NDC regime under former President John Mahama. “A drastic decline in inflation from an average of 17.5 per cent in 2016 to an average of 7.2 per cent in 2020 and an average increase of 10 per cent in 2021 is evident to support that the government was doing better. However, the inflation further rose to 15.7 percent in February 2022 because of global conditions, including a huge rise in crude oil and other commodity prices and the Russia/Ukraine conflict.”
Kwasi Afrifa noted that despite all the economic challenges associated with the covid-19 pandemic, government has managed to protect and sustained all its flagship programs key among them are the Free SHS, Zongo Development projects, One District One Factory and planting for food and jobs.
“According to the bank of Ghana in a report by Daily Guide it stated that in 2021 28.7% of Ghana’s grains import were from Russia, also 50% of flour imported into Ghana are from Russia, again the construction industry will also be affected with supply of iron since Ghana import a greater percentage of its raw materials from Ukraine,” he posited.
Mr. Afrifa emphasised that the global average cost of shipping a container has increased from $1446 in December 2019 to $9,789 in February 2022 (an increase of 576%). “Ghana’s has been impaired for two years and this has affected all sectors of the economy. This has dramatically increased the cost of shipping goods and therefore their prices on the market.”
He continued, “The government under the direction of President Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as head of Economic management team have rolled out measures to mitigate the effect of hardship on the citizenry, calling all to support the government with prayers and a sense of nationalism to be able to successfully sail Ghana through the storm.”
Touching on the progress made in Ghana’s digitisation drive by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Mr. Afrifa said currently 13.2 million Ghanaians have been issued Ghana cards. According to him, the introduction of the Tax identification number has made it convenient for government to uniquely identify transactions for all. In the case of a proper working address system, he added that government has leveraged the GPS technology to implement a digital address capturing every square inch of land in Ghana currently. “One critical development is the installation of over 1000 CCTV cameras nationwide which has helped the Police in the combating of crime and ensuring sanity on our roads.”
In the field of employment, he commended government for the soon to be operationalised YouStart initative for the teeming youth, a major scheme that will provide young entrepreneurs with adequate training, advisory services, and funding to enable them scale and enhance their business especially in the agriculture sector.
