Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, the running mate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused the John Mahama-led administration of “deforming” the country’s economy, contrary to claims that it has “transformed” it.
The former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, who was addressing the press in response to government’s 2016 budget statement and its record in the last seven years, said the outcomes of the government’s eighth budget statements since 2001, have been abysmal.
“Today, the promise is to “change lives and transform the economy”. One really wonders if this government is in touch with reality. The reality for most Ghanaians is that the economic policies of this government have destroyed many lives as young graduates are unable to find jobs, people are unable to pay school fees for their wards, people cannot pay for hospital fees, businesses are collapsing, etc,” he said.
[contextly_sidebar id=”5gjhNFWXEgA4FoySMuWBjbxvmthQTnjy”]”Many lives have been destroyed and the economy, as we would show shortly has rather been deformed and not transformed. We have kept warning the government that you cannot use propaganda to manage an economy. The reality is that the people are suffering under this government and there is no transformation. Propaganda cannot change this reality,” he continued.
He added that Ghanaians were promised a ‘Better Ghana” in 2008, but going into the 8th year of government in 2016, the government has delivered “one of the worst economic performances of any government in Ghana’s history.”
“The record after the seven main budgets of the NDC is definitely not one of a “Better Ghana” than the one this government inherited in 2009. Rather, it is a record of a monumental waste of an historic opportunity to transform the economy of Ghana and improve the lives of Ghanaians. The budgets in 7 years promised a “Better Ghana” yet the outcomes, consistently, have been very abysmal. After two terms in office, one would expect that major gains would be made by this government in tackling the major problems the Ghanaian economy. These are problems of inclusive economic growth to address unemployment, decline in the agriculture sector, rising cost of living, collapsing businesses, the energy crisis (“dumsor”) unsustainable debt, poor infrastructure, rising interest rates exchange rate depreciation, rising fiscal and balance of payments deficits, and corruption.”
According to Dr. Bawumia, Ghana’s economy under the NPP administration from 2001-2008, saw a steady growth on yearly basis, compared to that President Mahama and the late Professor Mills from 2009-2015.
“The NPP’s record on economic growth compares with the uneven and recently declining growth rates achieved by the NDC Mills-Mahama, Mahama administrations. In 2009, growth rate swung down to 4.0%; in 2010 it grew at 8.0% and upped to 14.0 per cent with the onset of oil production. For 2012 the GDP growth registered 8.8%, climbing down to 7.6 in 2013 and plummeting to 4.1% in 2014. The provisional 2015 GDP growth rate is 4.1% and for the first time since the inclusion of oil revenues beginning from 2011 the non-oil component of the GDP growth of 4.2% is higher than the overall real GDP growth rate of 4.1%. In 2014 the revised figures indicate that GDP growth rate was 4.0% same as the non-oil GDP growth.”
He lambasted government for what he called a failure to grow the economy despite revenues from oil, compared to what the NPP achieved without oil revenue.
“In the eight years of the NDC government, the size of the economy would have increased from $28.5 billion in 2008 to a projected $39.4 billion in 2016 (with oil), a 52% increase compared to the 500% increase witnessed under the NPP (without oil). The GDP growth rate which was inherited by the NPP under the stellar leadership of President Kufuor in 2000 was 3.7%. In 2001 the GDP grew at 4.2%; in 2002 it grew at 4.5% rising to 5.2% in 2003 and to 5.6% in 2004. It rose to 5.9% in 2005, 6.4% in 2006; 6.3% in 2007 and to 8.4% in 2008. This indeed is steady growth and it occurred without revenues from crude oil exports and in periods where the world was seeing the worst economic crisis in decades. In the process, the size of Ghana’s economy increased from some $5.1 billion to $28.5 billion, a 500% increase.”
“Even in the face of a global economic and financial crisis in 2007/8 (with oil prices reaching a record high of $147/barrel) economic growth in 2008 rose to 8.4%. Ghana was transformed during the period of the NPP’s tenure (2001-2008) from a low income HIPC economy to a lower middle income economy on the frontiers of emerging market status.”
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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana