The Deputy Minister of Information, Felix Ofosu Kwakye has described as “hollow” and “ trivial” the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) claims on the worsening energy crisis in the country.
[contextly_sidebar id=”fZChiwe36PhubtdPcvD8Do8QuQYGzTkm”]Kwabena Agyapong, the General Secretary of the party at a press conference on Tuesday noted that a lot of businesses have collapsed because of the energy crisis adding that “at our health facilities the situation is very precarious.”
However responding to the party’s concerns on Point Blank segment of Eyewitness News, Ofosu Kwakye said it was needless for the NPP to rehash the effects of the inconsistent power supply to Ghanaians.
“There is no point to rehash the effects of the situation and leaving it like that because Ghanains are fully aware of what the effects are. The President has acknowledged that there is a major difficulty which he is giving attention to address.”
Ofosu Kwakye remarked that the party had no basis criticising President Mahama and to some extent Minister of Power “because they have clearly expressed government’s deep concern about the electricity situation and have proceeded to outline clear measures to rectify the challenge.”
He further called on the NPP, as a major stakeholder, to contribute and make interventions which “ will focus on measurable policy alternative that differ significantly from what government is doing already” to help resolve the problem.
State of gov’ts debt
Felix Ofosu Kwakye also denied claims that the government had borrowed 27 billion dollars in the past six years as the NPP had projected.
In 2014, a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana,Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia said government in the past six years has increased the nation’s debt stock by an average of 98% per year.
Addressing members of the NPP UK branch and the Young Executive Forum in the UK, Dr Bawumia described government’s rate of borrowing as “reckless” and said the situation is “worrying.”
But in a rebuttal, Mr Felix Ofosu Kwakye said the figures presented by the NPP on government’s debt stock is false and misleading.
“For sometime now the NPP has been peddling some untruth about the state of debt vis a vis how much money has been borrowed,” he said.
According to him, the budget statement that Mr. Seth Terkper presented, gives a true account of Ghana’s debt situation.
“Indeed if you do an analysis, you will find out that as of September, 2014, the total amount of debt since independence is 21.7 billion dollars,”Ofosu Kwakye revealed.
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah