‘I’m from Ghana; the economy of my country is very ill’ — Mahama speaks at Harvard

Former Ghana President John Dramani Mahama

Former President John Dramani Mahama has projected Ghana’s economy at the Africa Business Conference as one that is suffering from the ills of mismanagement.

Speaking at the Harvard Business School in the United States of America, the 2020 presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) stressed that the current administration has failed woefully in managing the economy.

He said due to a ballooning public debt stock, double-digit inflation, a nose-diving currency, Ghana’s economy is now ill and performing badly compared to other economies on the continent.

“The pandemic has had a generally deleterious effect on the economy of African nations but some countries have ridden the waves more successfully than others based on the resilience of their economies, discipline, and prudent use of their resources in the period of this crisis.

“In my country Ghana, our country has emerged in extremely poor shape from the Covid-19 experience. A ballooning deficit, double-digit inflation, a nose-diving currency, increasing debt distress are some of the symptoms of a very ill economy,” former President John Dramani Mahama said at the conference.

He continued, “Ghana’s case was easy to predict with the cavalier handling of the economy by the current administration, unbridled borrowing from the capital market, and other critical fiscal figures were certain to come to an end eventually. Ghana went into the pandemic without adequate buffers.”

John Dramani while bemoaning the debt stress levels of Ghana and other African countries, further advocated for reinstitution and extension of the debt service suspension initiatives to offer countries some fiscal space so that investments can be made to critical sectors like education and health as well as other social sectors.