President Akufo-Addo on Thursday, February 20, 2020 delivered his fourth State of the Nation Address in Parliament.

The session was boycotted by the NDC minority in Parliament.

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Speaking during a debate on the address on the floor of Parliament, the Minister for Planning, also the MP for Wenchi, Professor George Gyan Baffour said the current government was, nonetheless, ready to turn the economy around despite the difficulties it came to meet.

According to Prof. Baffour, President Akufo-Addo divided his speech on the economy into three parts; public finances, the growth of the economy and job creation and the situation of the banks.

“Mr. Speaker, in all these three important sectors, it is clear that the economy that this government inherited from the past government is not only faltering but it is in a very ugly state. Our public finances are in a bad state. The government left huge arrears to the tune of GHc 7 billion because of unplanned expenditure,” he explained.

NDC didn’t miss IMF targets

Meanwhile, the Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson maintained the President did not present the true facts to the House, with reference to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Credit Facility program of US$918 million.

President Akufo-Addo, during his address, revealed that Ghana missed nearly all targets set for the country under the IMF programme as at December 2016.

According to the President, the previous National Democratic Congress government missed the targets due to financial and fiscal indiscipline in the management of public funds.

But Mr. Ato Forson said he was not aware of any fourth and fifth review of Ghana’s programme by the IMF, given he was the deputy Finance Minister at the time.

He asserted that the three criteria; quantitative performance criteria, continuous performance criteria and monetary policy criteria, were met.

Outlining the details of the targets he said, “I can say on authority that what the President is saying cannot be accurate. I know for a fact, without even the IMF coming to Ghana for a review, some of these quantitative criteria, continuous performance criteria and monetary policy criteria have indeed been met.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Parliament debates SOTN address, Minority allege inaccuracies appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The President while speaking in Parliament during his first State of the Nation Address on Tuesday, further noted that, he inherited a $2.4 billion highly indebted power sector from the previous government.

Nana Addo spoke on several other sectors of the economy in his maiden address.

Citifmonline.com takes a look at some things said by the President in his address as against what his predecessor, John Dramani Mahama said during his last two State of the Nation Address in February 2016 and January, 2017.

Below is an infographic summarizing the views of the two– Akufo-Addo and John Mahama.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post #SOTNGhana: Nana Addo vs. John Mahama [Infographic] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.