Kofi Adams, the Buem Constituency Member of Parliament, has reaffirmed that the government’s current economic problems precede the Covid-19 pandemic.
He claims that from an economic perspective, the pandemic has actually opened up a way for the NPP government to increase its revenue.
The government has continuously blamed COVID-19 and the Russian/Ukrainian War for the nation’s economic woes.
According to the government, this was one of the elements that severely damaged Ghana’s economy and compelled it to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
After months of negotiations, Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam announced on June 24 that Ghana completed its debt restructuring. The government restructured $5.1 billion with external creditors and $13.1 billion with Eurobond holders, saving $8 billion. Mr. Adams, speaking on JoyNews, said the government’s excuse is unconvincing.
He explained that the economy was already struggling, and COVID-19 just exposed the damage. The AG’s report supports this. Therefore, the government shouldn’t be proud of savings from creditor negotiations since the economy was mismanaged.
He told host Samson Lardy Anyenini:
“The Auditor General’s special report as far as covid is concerned makes nonsense of anyone who says covid is to blame for what happened.
“Even before Covid we were already having challenges. When Covid came as a disease what were we told, that persons with underlining conditions suffered more than those without underlining conditions.
“So if your economy had underlining situations covid off course will come and make your situation worse. The data shows that before Covid, Ghana was in a bad situation. Immediately we existed the IMF programme that was an opportunity for them to do what they wanted and never invested these resources in appropriate areas,”
He emphasized that the government was able to raise funds through the COVID that it could not have raised on its own. Thus, it was unjust to attribute the crisis to COVID-19.
Read Also: COVID-19 Was A Whole Jackpot For Government – Nii Moi Thompson
