When Ofori-Atta appeared before the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee debating the Motion of Censure against him on November 18, 2022, he offered this apology.
He acknowledged that Ghana’s citizens are experiencing hardships and that the country’s economy is having problems.
He said he sees and feels the terrible impact of the challenges and would continue to work hard to resolve them to help mitigate the hardships for the citizens.
“Today, I acknowledge our economy is facing difficulties and the people of Ghana are enduring hardships.
“As the person, President Akufo-Addo has put in charge of the economy, I feel the pain personally, professionally, and in my soul. I see and feel the terrible impact of the rising prices of goods and services on the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Ghanaians,” he told the Committee.
He added that he has taken note of the plight of businesses in the country as they struggle to stay in business.
“I feel the stress of running a business. But, it is the strength and perseverance of the Ghanaian people that inspire me and my colleagues in government every morning, to press on,” Ofori-Atta said.
The minister added that “is what gives me the strength to press on to find solutions and relief for Ghanaians to the myriad of problems that our country and the rest of the world are facing, especially, since March 2020.”
An eight-member ad-hoc committee from both sides of the house was set up on November 10 by the Speaker of Parliament to probe the motion.
On Tuesday, November 18, 2022, when the first sitting was had the Minority was represented by the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, and, Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson, proponents of the motion.
The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) took their turns to appear before the committee on November 17, 2022.
The Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah has heaped praises on President Akufo-Addo for the massive development of port infrastructure in his region.
According to the Regional Minister, the construction of the ports is opening the region up to several economic opportunities and creating more job opportunities for the teeming youth of the region.
“Under President Akufo-Addo, we have been able to construct 4 ports in the Western Region. This is very unprecedented. You all know that under Dr Kwame Nkrumah, he did for us the Sekondi Naval Base and you know the British in 1928 did the Takoradi Port. Under President Akufo-Addo we have done another port inside the Takoradi Harbor which is the Atlantic Port Service with a private sector Ibistek.
“It is like the MPS we have in Tema. We also have another port which is a fishing port in Dixcove and another one in Axim and we are now developing what we call the fuel operating base like the naval base at Ezinlibo close to our oil fields,” he said.
He said this when he took his turn at the State of Region Report, a media engagement platform put together by the Ministry of Information to regularly update the media on developments in their regions on Wednesday, November 16, 2022.
Touching on related infrastructure projects, the Minister stated that work on the railways, Takoradi market, the Paa Grant road interchange, the Agenda 111 among other state interventions were on course to restore hope to the people of the region.
On roads, he said 252.37 kilometres of roads have been completed in the region. He said the road projects spanning urban, feeder roads and highways include the emergency rehabilitation of the Ahwetieso to Tarkwa road, Bogoso Junction and Assembly Office in Tarkwa, regravelling of Sankor to Cape Three Points road, reconstruction of Tarkwa to Darmang road and the construction of Agona Nkwanta to Tarkwa trunk road.
He said the construction of the roads coupled with the numerous developmental projects in the region will help boost socio-economic activities, particularly when the region plays a critical role in the country’s development.
If the President does not promptly fire him, they have threatened to boycott the upcoming 2023 budget presentation as well as all Finance Ministry activities.
You might remember that on Tuesday, October 25, more than 80 MPs held a press conference to call for the dismissal of Charles Adu Boahen and Ken Ofori-Atta from their respective positions.
Charles Adu Boahen has since been sacked by President Akufo-Addo after a latest investigative piece by ace Investigative Journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas implicated him.
Majority call
Subsequently, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu indicated that the call for the Finance Minister to be axed is from the entire Majority caucus.
“Even though the issue started with a group of 80-plus, the caucus meeting aligned with the decision of that group. So it is no longer the cause of the 80-plus group. It is the agenda for the entire caucus,” Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu told Journalists in Parliament.
However, the NPP MPs seem to have changed their minds about allowing the Finance Minister to present the budget statement. They want Ken Ofori-Atta gone immediately.
No Turning Back
The Member of Parliament for Asante Akyem North, Andy Appiah-Kubi, who doubles as Spokesperson for the group speaking in an interview on Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’ said, “we are not only going to boycott the budget presentation, we are also not going to be part of any business done through him and that is our position now”.
“Yes, we are not part of the vote of censure . . . we want him gone, but by using a better approach and that is what we’re doing . . . indeed we agreed to the President’s request to wait but analyzing various public statements, especially from Ofori-Atta, it shows disrespect. It gives the impression that the President has no plan to dismiss him even after the budget presentation and so we’ve changed our mind; his dismissal should be now,” he insisted.
The Asante Akyem North MP has further assured that they won’t change their stand even if the President calls for another meeting.
“I can assure you that our current position won’t be changed,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Finance Minister is now facing a vote of censure from the Minority side of Parliament.
Founder and leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Akwasi Addae, widely known as Odike, claims the Electoral Commission (EC) is being used as a tool against him.
According to him, the arbiter for all political parties has now turned into a tool for President Akufo-Addo to do as he pleases.
Reacting to the cancellation of his party’s certificate by the EC during an interview with Happy98.9FM’s ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ political talk show, he said, “Jean Mensa was brought in to destroy me by Akufo-Addo. As a party, all our documentations are intact. We have our head office around the Top Radio area and have offices in every region in the country. The UPP had its certificate cancelled because of me and not because we didn’t meet requirements.”
Odike claims he saw this coming as far back as the 2020 elections when Wontumi told him he will be unable to contest in the general elections.
The politician at the initial stages of the election went through all checks and was successfully okayed for the elections. He was even congratulated by the EC Chair, Jean Mensa only to hear in the news he had been disqualified 2 weeks after.
Decrying the unfair treatment meted out to him and his party by the EC, he called on Ghanaians to gather courage and support parties and individuals who speak against the government and its ills.
The Electoral Commission has struck out the names of some 17 political parties from Ghana’s political parties register.
Between May and June 2022, the EC embarked on a nationwide exercise to inspect the offices of all registered political parties in Ghana.
But after the exercise, the EC invoked Section 15 (3) (c) of the Political Parties Act of 2000, Act 574, which mandates it to cancel the registration of Political Parties which do not have offices at the National and Regional levels.
The affected political parties are; the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), United Front Party (UFP), United Development System (UDSP), Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere, Yes People’s Party (YPP), United Ghana Movement (UGM), Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), New Vision Party (NVP), Ghana Democratic Republican Party (GDRP), Ghana National Party (GNP), Power Unity Party (PUP), United Progressive Party (UPP), Reform Patriotic Democrats (RPD), People’s Action Party (PAP), United Renaissance Party (URP), National Reform Party (NRP), United Love Party (ULP).
Because Ken Ofori-Atta is unable to oversee the stability of the cedi and the Ghanaian economy, Ghanaians and Members of Parliament (MP), including some from the majority party, have called for his resignation.
However, President Akufo-Addo has disregarded these requests, blaming Ofori-continued Atta’s employment on his participation in the ongoing negotiations of a financial aid agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The peeved Mr. Akyireba who argues this is not enough justification to keep an underperforming minister in office, told Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, “It doesn’t make sense for the President to say Ken Ofori-Atta should finish the IMF negotiations. The minister is disliked by Ghanaians at the moment so how will they appreciate his negotiations? We simply don’t want him and or his negotiations. We place no value on his negotiations and want him gone.”
The Ghanaian people who he (Ofori-Atta) is representing want him out, and as a minister working for the people, Mr. Akyireba believes his dismissal should not have been dragged.
The forensic accountant is of the view the Finance Minister is lording himself over Ghanaians, and is pursuing his selfish interest, hence, his decision to remain in office.
President of Ghana Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo waits to speak during the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021.
Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at the Centre for Democratic Development Ghana (CDD-Ghana), Dr. Kojo Pumpuni Asante, has bemoaned President Akufo-Addo’s refusal to remove his Finance Minister.
According to him, had the President heeded to calls for a Ministerial reshuffle or simply gone ahead to remove the Finance Minister, Parliament would not be locked up in a censure motion proceeding; further derailing the business of government.
He stated that the country is in a crucial situation where a Finance Minister is expected to be drawing a budget while leading the Ghana team in the IMF negotiations, however, currently all of that has been put on hold while the incumbent Minister is being ‘tried’ by an ad hoc committee.
The Minority in Parliament has filed a motion of censure against the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, accusing him of corruption and gross incompetence.
In proceedings currently ongoing in Parliament, the Finance Minister is expected to answer to these charges before an eight member ad hoc committee evenly constituted by members from both sides of the political divide.
With both sides polarized on the matter, Dr. Kojo Pumpuni has noted that such polarization is not what a country in crisis needs to resolve its issues.
“I don’t understand why the President has ground his teeth on this matter. Because now we’re in a process, the Finance Minister was supposed to go and present the budget next week. Now the Finance Minister is spending his time in a court room trying to respond to charges against him and so on and so forth when he should be, if indeed he’s the one preparing this budget for our consideration, he should be doing that work.
“Some of these steps should have been taken by the President a long time ago and I don’t know why he’s not seeing the bigger picture that we’re going to diffuse a lot of the tension. Because in a country where you have crisis, the last thing you need is more polarization and more time spent on this kind of actions rather than focus on the business of actually dealing with the problems that Ghanaians are facing,” he said.
Reports from the previous two years, however, suggested that Ghana’s corruption perception score did not change during the previous year.
To help readers understand how the country performed on the index during the previous government and the current government, GhanaWeb examined Ghana’s performance on the CPI over the last 10 years in this article.
GhanaWeb Feature
Transparency International recently released the global 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) with Ghana scoring 43 out of 100.
This is even more concerning considering the current government’s promise to be resolute about fighting corruption to the core.
The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) said the score of 43 by Ghana indicates the country did not make progress in its fight against corruption in 2021 as the score remains in 2022.
GhanaWeb takes a look at Ghana’s performance on the CPI over the past 10 years to give readers an understanding of the country’s performance on the index under the past government and the ruling government.
There was a drop in 2015 by a point -47 in 2015 and then just before the then President, John Mahama handed over power to the new government, the country’s score on the corruption perception index had dropped by 4 points to 43 in 2016 – which means there was higher corruption recorded in the last year of the reign of the NDC administration under Mahama.
In terms of ranks on the CPI, Ghana was ranked the 64th the least corrupt country out of 180 countries in 2012, then it ranked 63rd in 2013, 61st in 2014, 56th in 2015 and 70th in 2016.
Corruption under Akufo-Addo:
Having promised to rid the country of the persisting canker of corruption, Ghana scored 40 over 100 in its first year under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2017.
This increased by a point to 41 in 2018
And for the next year, this figure was retained when Ghana scored – 41 in 2019. This number rose by 2 more points in 2020 to become 43 but government failed to increase this score in 2021.
During the term of President Akufo-Addo, Ghana ranked 81st in 2017, 78th in 2018, 80th in 2019, 75th in 2020, and 73rd least corrupt country in 2021.
Where does Ghana stand?
From these figures for the past five years, it could be said that Ghana has not made progress in the fight against corruption. The government inherited an index of 43 and it still scoring 43 which is even an improvement on its previous scores.
According to Transparency International, Ghana’s best performance on the CPI was in 2014 when it scored 48.
The corruption index is measured from 0 to 100. The higher the score of a country the less corrupt it is perceived to be. Countries that score below 50 are perceived to be more corrupt.
Whilst the government insists it has made significant progress in the fight against corruption, very little has been seen as being done by the Special Prosecutor’s office which was established in the first year of his term as president.
The Deputy Information Minister Fatimatu Abubakar, in an interview on Asaase News said Ghana has been making progress on the index since 2017 when it scored 40 out of 100 on the CPI.
“But let us establish the fact that what this government inherited in 2017 was an average of 40, and the measurement is such that the lower you score, the more corrupt you are… so if you look at the trends from 2017, you will realise that no matter how small the figure is, Ghana has been stepping up, from 2017 to 2018 we were up from 40 to 41 and then in 2020 we moved a notch higher,” she was quoted by asaaseradio.
But do the current figures reflect this assertion?
Meanwhile, Transparency International indicates from its findings that Ghana’s best performance was in 2015 when it ranked 56th out of the 180 countries. This means that in the past 9 years, the John Mahama administration recorded the best records as far as the fight against corruption was concerned.
Author: Ishmael Batoma
GhanaWeb Feature
Transparency International recently released the global 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) with Ghana scoring 43 out of 100.
Ghana’s performance was the same as last year and this has led to the worrying question of whether or not Ghana’s corruption fight is dwindling.
This is even more concerning considering the current government’s promise to be resolute about fighting corruption to the core.
The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) said the score of 43 by Ghana indicates the country did not make progress in its fight against corruption in 2021 as the score remains in 2022.
GhanaWeb takes a look at Ghana’s performance on the CPI over the past 10 years to give readers an understanding of the country’s performance on the index under the past government and the ruling government.
Corruption under Mahama:
First let us take a look at the performance of Ghana before President Akufo-Addo was sworn into power in 2017. Data from the Transparency international indicates that Ghana scored;
45 in 2012
46 in 2013
48 in 2014
There was a drop in 2015 by a point -47 in 2015 and then just before the then President, John Mahama handed over power to the new government, the country’s score on the corruption perception index had dropped by 4 points to 43 in 2016 – which means there was higher corruption recorded in the last year of the reign of the NDC administration under Mahama.
In terms of ranks on the CPI, Ghana was ranked the 64th the least corrupt country out of 180 countries in 2012, then it ranked 63rd in 2013, 61st in 2014, 56th in 2015 and 70th in 2016.
Corruption under Akufo-Addo:
Having promised to rid the country of the persisting canker of corruption, Ghana scored 40 over 100 in its first year under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2017.
This increased by a point to 41 in 2018
And for the next year, this figure was retained when Ghana scored – 41 in 2019. This number rose by 2 more points in 2020 to become 43 but government failed to increase this score in 2021.
During the term of President Akufo-Addo, Ghana ranked 81st in 2017, 78th in 2018, 80th in 2019, 75th in 2020, and 73rd least corrupt country in 2021.
Where does Ghana stand?
From these figures for the past five years, it could be said that Ghana has not made progress in the fight against corruption. The government inherited an index of 43 and it still scoring 43 which is even an improvement on its previous scores.
According to Transparency International, Ghana’s best performance on the CPI was in 2014 when it scored 48.
The corruption index is measured from 0 to 100. The higher the score of a country the less corrupt it is perceived to be. Countries that score below 50 are perceived to be more corrupt.
Whilst the government insists it has made significant progress in the fight against corruption, very little has been seen as being done by the Special Prosecutor’s office which was established in the first year of his term as president.
The Deputy Information Minister Fatimatu Abubakar, in an interview on Asaase News said Ghana has been making progress on the index since 2017 when it scored 40 out of 100 on the CPI.
“But let us establish the fact that what this government inherited in 2017 was an average of 40, and the measurement is such that the lower you score, the more corrupt you are… so if you look at the trends from 2017, you will realise that no matter how small the figure is, Ghana has been stepping up, from 2017 to 2018 we were up from 40 to 41 and then in 2020 we moved a notch higher,” she was quoted by asaaseradio.
But do the current figures reflect this assertion?
Meanwhile, Transparency International indicates from its findings that Ghana’s best performance was in 2015 when it ranked 56th out of the 180 countries. This means that in the past 9 years, the John Mahama administration recorded the best records as far as the fight against corruption was concerned.
Author: Ishmael Batoma
GhanaWeb Feature
Transparency International recently released the global 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) with Ghana scoring 43 out of 100.
Ghana’s performance was the same as last year and this has led to the worrying question of whether or not Ghana’s corruption fight is dwindling.
This is even more concerning considering the current government’s promise to be resolute about fighting corruption to the core.
The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) said the score of 43 by Ghana indicates the country did not make progress in its fight against corruption in 2021 as the score remains in 2022.
GhanaWeb takes a look at Ghana’s performance on the CPI over the past 10 years to give readers an understanding of the country’s performance on the index under the past government and the ruling government.
Corruption under Mahama:
First let us take a look at the performance of Ghana before President Akufo-Addo was sworn into power in 2017. Data from the Transparency international indicates that Ghana scored;
45 in 2012
46 in 2013
48 in 2014
There was a drop in 2015 by a point -47 in 2015 and then just before the then President, John Mahama handed over power to the new government, the country’s score on the corruption perception index had dropped by 4 points to 43 in 2016 – which means there was higher corruption recorded in the last year of the reign of the NDC administration under Mahama.
In terms of ranks on the CPI, Ghana was ranked the 64th the least corrupt country out of 180 countries in 2012, then it ranked 63rd in 2013, 61st in 2014, 56th in 2015 and 70th in 2016.
Corruption under Akufo-Addo:
Having promised to rid the country of the persisting canker of corruption, Ghana scored 40 over 100 in its first year under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2017.
This increased by a point to 41 in 2018
And for the next year, this figure was retained when Ghana scored – 41 in 2019. This number rose by 2 more points in 2020 to become 43 but government failed to increase this score in 2021.
During the term of President Akufo-Addo, Ghana ranked 81st in 2017, 78th in 2018, 80th in 2019, 75th in 2020, and 73rd least corrupt country in 2021.
Where does Ghana stand?
From these figures for the past five years, it could be said that Ghana has not made progress in the fight against corruption. The government inherited an index of 43 and it still scoring 43 which is even an improvement on its previous scores.
According to Transparency International, Ghana’s best performance on the CPI was in 2014 when it scored 48.
The corruption index is measured from 0 to 100. The higher the score of a country the less corrupt it is perceived to be. Countries that score below 50 are perceived to be more corrupt.
Whilst the government insists it has made significant progress in the fight against corruption, very little has been seen as being done by the Special Prosecutor’s office which was established in the first year of his term as president.
The Deputy Information Minister Fatimatu Abubakar, in an interview on Asaase News said Ghana has been making progress on the index since 2017 when it scored 40 out of 100 on the CPI.
“But let us establish the fact that what this government inherited in 2017 was an average of 40, and the measurement is such that the lower you score, the more corrupt you are… so if you look at the trends from 2017, you will realise that no matter how small the figure is, Ghana has been stepping up, from 2017 to 2018 we were up from 40 to 41 and then in 2020 we moved a notch higher,” she was quoted by asaaseradio.
But do the current figures reflect this assertion?
Meanwhile, Transparency International indicates from its findings that Ghana’s best performance was in 2015 when it ranked 56th out of the 180 countries. This means that in the past 9 years, the John Mahama administration recorded the best records as far as the fight against corruption was concerned.
Author: Ishmael Batoma
GhanaWeb Feature
Transparency International recently released the global 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) with Ghana scoring 43 out of 100.
Ghana’s performance was the same as last year and this has led to the worrying question of whether or not Ghana’s corruption fight is dwindling.
This is even more concerning considering the current government’s promise to be resolute about fighting corruption to the core.
The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) said the score of 43 by Ghana indicates the country did not make progress in its fight against corruption in 2021 as the score remains in 2022.
GhanaWeb takes a look at Ghana’s performance on the CPI over the past 10 years to give readers an understanding of the country’s performance on the index under the past government and the ruling government.
Corruption under Mahama:
First let us take a look at the performance of Ghana before President Akufo-Addo was sworn into power in 2017. Data from the Transparency international indicates that Ghana scored;
45 in 2012
46 in 2013
48 in 2014
There was a drop in 2015 by a point -47 in 2015 and then just before the then President, John Mahama handed over power to the new government, the country’s score on the corruption perception index had dropped by 4 points to 43 in 2016 – which means there was higher corruption recorded in the last year of the reign of the NDC administration under Mahama.
In terms of ranks on the CPI, Ghana was ranked the 64th the least corrupt country out of 180 countries in 2012, then it ranked 63rd in 2013, 61st in 2014, 56th in 2015 and 70th in 2016.
Corruption under Akufo-Addo:
Having promised to rid the country of the persisting canker of corruption, Ghana scored 40 over 100 in its first year under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2017.
This increased by a point to 41 in 2018
And for the next year, this figure was retained when Ghana scored – 41 in 2019. This number rose by 2 more points in 2020 to become 43 but government failed to increase this score in 2021.
During the term of President Akufo-Addo, Ghana ranked 81st in 2017, 78th in 2018, 80th in 2019, 75th in 2020, and 73rd least corrupt country in 2021.
Where does Ghana stand?
From these figures for the past five years, it could be said that Ghana has not made progress in the fight against corruption. The government inherited an index of 43 and it still scoring 43 which is even an improvement on its previous scores.
According to Transparency International, Ghana’s best performance on the CPI was in 2014 when it scored 48.
The corruption index is measured from 0 to 100. The higher the score of a country the less corrupt it is perceived to be. Countries that score below 50 are perceived to be more corrupt.
Whilst the government insists it has made significant progress in the fight against corruption, very little has been seen as being done by the Special Prosecutor’s office which was established in the first year of his term as president.
The Deputy Information Minister Fatimatu Abubakar, in an interview on Asaase News said Ghana has been making progress on the index since 2017 when it scored 40 out of 100 on the CPI.
“But let us establish the fact that what this government inherited in 2017 was an average of 40, and the measurement is such that the lower you score, the more corrupt you are… so if you look at the trends from 2017, you will realise that no matter how small the figure is, Ghana has been stepping up, from 2017 to 2018 we were up from 40 to 41 and then in 2020 we moved a notch higher,” she was quoted by asaaseradio.
But do the current figures reflect this assertion?
Meanwhile, Transparency International indicates from its findings that Ghana’s best performance was in 2015 when it ranked 56th out of the 180 countries. This means that in the past 9 years, the John Mahama administration recorded the best records as far as the fight against corruption was concerned.
The vice president of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has provided details on the economic variables of Ghana when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led the famous ‘Kume Preko’ demonstration against the government of the late Jerry John Rawlings in 1995.
In a tweet shared on Monday, November 14, Simons intimated that Ghana’s economy is in a far worse position now compared to the time the current president led the ‘kume preko’ protest.
“The massive Kume Preko protests in 1995 have been in the news lately as some observers compare the current economic crisis in Ghana to what existed then. But how do 1995 & 2022 REALLY compare? Well, some things are eerily similar, a few are better & more, esp debt, are worse,” parts of the tweet read.
The details he shared showed that the depreciation of Ghana’s currency to the US dollar, which is currently 52 percent, was a little over 27 percent in 1995.
Also, the ratio of Ghana’s debt stock to its GDP was worse in the “Kume Preko” era than now.
The rate of inflation, however, is better now, compared to 1995.
Background on “Kume Preko”:
About 27 years ago, the biggest demonstration to have occurred in Ghana’s history took place.
Those at the forefront of this protest were Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, Kwasi Pratt Jnr, Dr Nyaho Tamakloe, Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako, Akoto Ampaw, Victor Newman, Kwaku Opoku, Napoleon Abdulai and was also joined by some 100,000 people.
What was termed as the high cost of living and particularly, the imposition of Value Added Tax (VAT) on items fuelled the demonstration against the then Rawlings administration?
According to reports, it was a period in which able-bodied and hardworking citizens could not afford one decent meal a day for a family.
In addition, the drop-out rate in educational institutions was said to be rising at a very alarming rate.
However, what started as a peaceful protest turned gory when some unidentified assailants opened fire on the demonstrators.
Many sustained severe injuries and others died from the attacks.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has lauded the Evangelical Presbyterian (EP) Church, Ghana for its immense contribution towards national development.
He said the Church had moved beyond its missionary and educational affairs to undertaking various agricultural and health projects, which continued to support the entire citizenry.
President Akufo-Addo was addressing congregants of the Church at Peki Blengo in the Volta Region to climax its 175th Anniversary.
It was themed: “A Journey of 175 Years in Ministry – Achievements, Challenges and the Way Forward.”
He said not many institutions had lived to the 175th year, hence the congregants must be proud of the Church’s blossom and survival.
“It is reassuring that the EP Church of today could still lay claim to the attributes that set it apart years ago,” he said, adding that Ghana expected much from it.
The EP Church, Ghana had produced notable and prominent citizens, whose legacies were all over the nation and beyond, including Dr Ephraim Amu.
Its contribution to education was unmatched, and still retained its reputation for music, hard work and discipline, a characteristic of Presbyterian schools, which the country needed, the President said.
“The schools that were Presbyterian used to be easily distinguished by the behaviour of their students and the orderly nature of their campuses. They stood out and we took pride in them.”
President Akufo-Addo, however, expressed regret over the indiscipline that had recently bedeviled the country, with most communities lacking the sense of communal responsibility, brotherliness, cleanliness and orderliness, which characterised the earlier Presbyterians.
He commended the Church’s collaboration with the Peace Council to find amicable resolution to conflicts in Alavanyo, Nkonya and Bimbila.
The President urged the Church to act according to its declarations and mission to bring about innovation, renewal of responsibility and transformation of society.
He promised to build an AstroTurf to commemorate the anniversary celebration and called on the Church to pray for him, the Government, and the nation.
The Right Reverend Dr Lt. Col. (Rtd) Bliss Divine Agbeko, Moderator of the General Assembly, EP Church, Ghana, said the 175 years of ministerial experiences in sending light to where there was darkness had been associated with mixed lessons.
These include achievements, challenges and the will to press on to greater heights and commitments to leave perpetual legacies for generations to come, all to the glory of God.
“We are grateful to God for the Bremen Missionaries and the Missionary Board, who first came to us with the Christian Gospel,” he said.
“They came along with formal education, orthodox health care, agriculture and helped to translate our languages into writing, and reading.”
The Moderator said the Church would continue to support governments in educating and healing the citizens through acceptable standards.
“We resolve to continue our advocacy role to speak for the voiceless, hopeless and the marginalised in society.”
Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, the Volta Regional Minister, said the Government saw the EP Church as a partner in development and urged it to continue its many programmes and projects to enhance living standards.
Deiga Kwadzo Dei XII, Paramount Chief of Peki Traditional Area, said the people took great pride in having a hand in bringing God’s Salvation and civilization to themselves and to the entire Eweland.
“The seed Lorenz Wolf sowed has borne fruits and continued to multiply and spread well beyond the shores of Africa into the diaspora. The EP Church has the right to be proud of it.”
Deiga Dei said the Pekis cherished the education programmes of the missionaries, which produced teachers and catechists to build the human resource base.
“I know of no basic school in Peki which did not derive its origins from the education programmes started through Christianity….”
President Akufo-Addo says Twitter’s decision to fold up its satellite office in Africa is unfortunate.
“We had looked forward to its presence,” he told journalists in the US.
The President added: “It was not too long ago that it was up, but I understand it is part and parcel of a global restructuring of a company that is taking place under the new owner.”
“I think that is very unfortunate that, that should take place. The more organisations like that have local outlets, the better for all of us.”
The tumultuous start to Elon Musk’s reign saw sweeping reductions in the workforce at the social media company.
Musk’s Twitter laid off nearly all the employees in its only African office just four days after it opened in the Ghanaian capital Accra.
reports say that only one employee appears to have been retained in the Ghana office after the global job cuts.
“It’s very insulting,” one former employee said in an interview with CNN. “They didn’t even have the courtesy to address me by name. The email just said ‘see attached’ and yet they used my name when they gave me an offer.”
Musk has fired half of Twitter staff, ushered out most of the top executives, and ordered the remaining staff to stop working from home.
The company has reportedly also made huge reductions in India, one of its biggest markets. It laid off more than 90% of its staff in Asia’s third-largest economy last weekend, according to a Bloomberg report.
The Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Samuel A. Jinapor on Saturday, 12th November 2022, co-Chaired the first ministerial meeting of the Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) with the United States’ Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, Secretary John Kerry, as the Minister’s final participation in the ongoing COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
The meeting which was attended by 28 Ministers and five observer countries, was to develop a framework for 2023 and beyond to achieve the objectives of the Partnership.
In his remarks, Mr Jinapor pledged the commitment of the Government of President Akufo-Addo to work with members of the partnership to deliver on forests and nature-based solutions to climate change.
He said forests and nature-based solutions can deliver up to a third of global climate solutions, and “Ghana, as a respected member of the international community, is fully committed to supporting global climate action”.
The FCLP is a new political forum that brings together governments and partners to work to implement solutions that reduce forest loss, increase restoration, and support sustainable development.
It creates a platform for Heads of State and Government and their Ministers to combine their political efforts to accelerate global action to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030, while delivering sustainable development and promoting an inclusive rural transformation.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has, once, again called for the reform of the Security Council of the United Nations, describing the current structure as an injustice against African countries.
Speaking at an event organised by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, on Wednesday, 10th November 2022, in New York, President Akufo-Addo noted that the Security Council is constrained by its anachronistic structure and methods, which undermine efforts to tackle contemporary challenges in the most effective manner.
“The conversations around reforms, which have been going on for three decades without an end in sight, must, therefore, yield real changes to the structures of the Council to make it innovative in its approach,” he said.
According to the President, the current structure of the UN Security Council represents a long-standing injustice toward the countries of Africa, and the time is long overdue in addressing it.
“It is obvious that the contemporary world has moved on significantly from the post-1945 world, which gave rise to the birth of the United Nations and the structure of the Security Council. The world of 2022, and even less that of 2050, is not the world of 1945. The crisis of the multilateral financial institutions and the United Nations system, which were born from the rubble of the Second World War, is a deep crisis,” President Akufo-Addo said.
He continued, “It will continue until a fair system is put in place; a system that reflects the new balances, no longer based on who lost or won the Second World War, but on the major contemporary and future balances. These balances must take into account new realities such as demographic dynamics or access to resources, in a context of scarcity.”
In its current state, the President noted that the Security Council is finding it increasingly difficult to propagate the rule of law and democratic principles.
“The use of the veto as an instrument of great power and interest is denuding the Security Council of a great deal of legitimacy as the principal instrument for the maintenance of international peace and security. The African Common Position on UN Reform, based on the Ezulwini Consensus, is of even greater relevance today than it has ever been. It is essential that it be brought back to the centre of global discourse,” he stressed.
President Akufo-Addo was confident that it will only be through the reforms that are suggested in the African Common Position that will enable the Security Council to be effective in addressing the challenges of our time.
“And it is only through its effectiveness at maintaining international peace and security that the Council can remain credible, legitimate and relevant,” he added.
Today marks the end of the four-day ultimatum given by the “Kumepreko reloaded” demonstrators to President Akufo-Addo, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, and the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to resign.
The angry protestors stormed the streets of Accra on Saturday, November 5, 2022, to protest the current economic hardships.
They gave the aforementioned government officials up until Wednesday, November 9, 2022, to resign or face the wrath of concerned Ghanaians who will explore all legal means to ensure their impeachment.
However, the President, his deputy, and the Finance Minister remain at their posts, despite the calls for their resignation (as of today, which marks the deadline).
Consequently, private legal practitioner and lead-convenor of the Kumepreko reloaded demonstration, Martin Kpebu, has disclosed that organisers of the protest have started collecting signatures to petition Parliament for the impeachment of President Akufo-Addo and his vice, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
In addition to this request, they have asked President Akufo-Addo to complete the procedures for Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister, to be dismissed.
“We’ve put together an online petition that we’ve invited citizens to sign up to; that is to say that they want the president and the vice to resign. That petition is gaining traction, many of our fellow citizens have signed up.”
“So, we will be drawing more attention to it so that thousands and possibly millions of our fellow citizens would sign up then we would present the same to Parliament,” Martin Kpebu said on JoyFM on Monday, November 7, 2022.
Meanwhile, the Kumepreko reloaded protest continues, with the next edition happening on November 15, 2022, outside Accra, according to the convenors.
The Private Legal Practitioner, by this move, intends to provide Ghanaians the platform to express their displeasure over the current happenings; i.e the fall of the cedi, high cost of living, etc.
“We are still debriefing, it is quite a process. We’ll have other meetings to analyse, but even before we were done with this one, we had received invitations from people in Kumasi, Takoradi, and even Tamale to come.
Speaking to the media on the economic crisis Ghana is currently facing, the NLA boss mentioned that the government is adjusting its expenditure, and to make its actions count, citizens also have to do the same.
“We are in difficult times and as the government is cutting down on its expenditure, we as citizens also have to do the same. If you used to consume a tin of milk at a go, currently, you can’t do that. We must cut down on expenditure. Government is doing its part,” he said.
Currently, the government is implementing a 30% cut in the salaries of political office holders, including the President, Vice President, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, MMDCEs, and SOE appointees.
Also, there is a 30% cut in discretionary expenditures for ministries, departments, and agencies.
In his latest address to the nation on the state of the current economy, President Akufo-Addo noted that his government will “reduce our total public debt to GDP ratio to some fifty-five percent (55%) in present value terms by 2028, with the servicing of our external debt pegged at not more than eighteen percent (18%) of our annual revenue also by 2028.”
In his submission, Mr Sammi Awuku further bemoaned the activities of speculators which have led to the further depreciation of the local currency, particularly against the United States Dollar, in recent times.
“We don’t print dollars. It is only that you receive, which you circulate. We should not be panicking. There are people with no linkage with the foreign currency but because he or she has heard that people are converting their cedi to dollars, he also does the same even though he would have no use for the foreign currency,” he said.
As many feared that they would no longer be able to procure the quantity of dollars they needed, there was a mad rush for the American ‘greenback’, further eroding the value of the cedi.
Ghana is heavily dependent on imported goods, and with the lack of dollars in the system and its high demand, there has been a significant rise in the general prices of goods and services.
Transport fares have risen above normal levels due to the rise in petroleum products, which are among the commodities imported into the country.
However, it has emerged that some traders and businesses are inflating prices beyond what is expected.
According to Mr Sammi Awuku, such actions should not be encouraged, and over-pricing of goods and services must be put to an end immediately.
“I’m pleading with drivers and traders to stop exploiting Ghanaians. Amidst the economic crisis, a businessman has decided to forfeit a profit of GH5 and go for GH20. What we forget is that when someone buys it for GH20, he or she would sell it for GH35,” Mr Awuku said.
President Akufo-Addo has asked rich countries to allow heavily indebted poor African countries to swap their debts with climate interventions.
The President has been addressing the world at this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27 in Egypt.
Ghana is currently facing crippling economic crisis fueled by huge debt.
The debt situation is proving to be a major stumbling block to getting an IMF deal in time.
Ghana is seeking a $3 billion bailout but the IMF has made it clear it will not lend to a country with unsustainable debt levels.
The IMF team has already worked with the finance ministry to complete a debt sustainability analysis.
The IMF executive board is expected to base its final decision on the report which may include debt restructuring.
President Akufo-Addo took advantage of the COP27 stage to raise the issue with the rich world.
“I urge those who hold African debt to commit to debt for climate swap initiatives,” the President said.
The President did not hold back in dismissing the global financial architecture as not fit for purpose.
He said a “Radical restructuring of the global financial architecture as proposed by the African finance ministers to accommodate the demands of the developing world is of urgent necessity.
“It is evident that with these poly crisis that it is not fit for purpose.”
The President once again took on the rich world for failing to honor a pledge to release $100 billion to help developing countries deal with the impact of climate change.
He also announced that his government will soon be launching a number of climate interventions to create jobs for Ghanaians.
This he says will happen through the rollout of initiatives that will promote regenerative agriculture that requires less fertilizers and reforestation with strong biodiversity content.
New Patriotic Member of Parliament for Bortianor-Ngleshie Amanfro, Sylvester Matthew Tetteh, has accused Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta of acting in bad faith after the president pleaded with the majority in parliament to step down on calls for his dismissal.
According to the majority member of parliament, comments made by the minister after they heeded the president’s request for time can affect the president’s plea.
“But when the finance minister, after this, goes public and starts making such public statements, we don’t know the challenges he’s gone through… I mean, these are comments in bad taste, and that is what I am saying, from where I sit, the signals I am picking, such comments, if it is not checked, will go down on the president’s plea,” he stated on Tuesday, October 11, 2022, edition of Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV.
“We had a meeting, and the president had made a plea; the majority caucus had taken that plea in good faith and to have gone through a process the president had asked. One party, in this case, should not go to town. It’s not good,” he added.
He hinted that the caucus would likely take action, such as boycotting the minister’s upcoming budget presentation in parliament, if his utterances are not checked.
“Events after and the subsequent pronouncements by the minister, the signals I am picking, if they don’t address it, he will come to the house to meet an empty chamber,” he stated.
Following an open call by about 80 majority MPs for the sack of Ken Ofori-Atta, President Akufo-Addo convened a meeting with the caucus where he is said to have made some pleas.
According to reports, the president asked the caucus to give the minister some time to conclude the government’s ongoing negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the presentation of the 2023 budget in parliament.
But responding to the calls for his sacking, Mr Ofori-Atta, in a recent engagement with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), said he rather remains focused on helping the country overcome the current economic challenges despite the pains he has gone through being the minister.
“You have a finance minister who has gone through all the pains and aches, and nobody can really come and say, ‘we don’t understand what we’re doing’,” he stated.
Ghana is presently experiencing serious fiscal problems, with inflation reaching 41% and food, goods, and services prices fluctuating.
As a result, some members of parliament from both the majority and minority parties have called on President Akufo-Addo to fire Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta for failing to manage the country’s economy.
Some Ghanaians have embarked on protests against the NPP government in response to the country’s current hardships.
However, lawyer Amoh Dartey thinks that the country’s current recession is an imported one.
Speaking on MYABC TV’s ‘Bɛkyerɛ Mu’ Show, Lawyer Amoh Dartey stated that, “most of Ghana’s economic crisis is imported because we have built our economy in such a way that, we always depend on importation.”
“If we want clothes, we import from Turkey, Toothpick we import from China, we have shoes in Kumasi but we import from Turkey. Everything in Ghana is imported either from Asia, Europe or America. Even tomatoes we import with billions of dollars. So when the pandemic erupted, the global supply chain shut down and this has affected the nation.”
According to him, the country will continue to experience an economic crisis if it continues to depend on imported goods.
He criticised government for doing very little to tackle the root cause of the country’s economic challenges and always thinking the problem is entirely imported.
Bright Simons argued that a bloated budget has triggered a debt crisis, but government seemed not bothered about cutting waste fast enough.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars have been splashed on capital projects, such as irrigation dams, that have simply been abandoned. And at the height of COVID the government was doling out millions of dollars to architects and contractors for esoteric projects, such as bible museums, without parliamentary approval as required by law,” Bright Simons bemoaned in a post.
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo weeks ago announced authorities have reached advanced stages of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund(IMF) on a bailout programme for Ghana.
Addressing the nation on the economy, Sunday, October 30, President Akufo-Addo said the country is on a steady path to unlock an IMF-supported programme by the end of the year.
“I am able to report to you, my fellow Ghanaians, that the negotiations to secure a strong IMF Programme, which will support the implementation of our Post COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth and additional funding to support the 2023 Budget and development programme, are at advanced stages, and are going well.”
“We are determined to secure these arrangements quickly to bring back confidence and relief to Ghanaians. We are working towards reaching a deal with the IMF by the end of the year. This will give further credence to the measures government is taking to stabilize and grow the economy, as well as shore up our currency.”
The living income differential (LIB) for cocoa growers in Ghana and Ivory Coast would be $400, according to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
When our two nations start using a new price mechanism for the sale of cocoa at $2,600 per tonne in 2021, he said in 2019, “A Living Income Deferential (LIB) of Four Hundred United States Dollars ($400) per tonne will be paid to farmers for all categories of cocoa beans from Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire.”
President Akufo-Addo has hinted that beginning from the 2021 crop season of cocoa production in Ghana and Ivory Coast, farmers in the two respective countries will be paid a Living Income Differential (LIB) of four hundred United States dollars ($400).
The President made the disclosure when he addressed the UNDP High Level Dialogue with African Influencers at the Kempinski Gold Coast Hotel under the theme, “Africa’s Money For African Development: A Future Beyond Aid”
In his address, President indicated that Ivory Coast and Ghana have agreed initial deals to sell cocoa with a living income premium of $400 a tonne added to the price, in a bid to reform the way global cocoa is priced.
“A Living Income Deferential (LIB) of Four Hundred United States dollars ($400) per tonne will be paid to farmers for all categories of cocoa beans from Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire starting from the 2021 cocoa crop season when our two countries begin to apply a new price mechanism for the sale of cocoa at $2,600 dollars per tonne” President Akufo Addo said.
“This policy has found support even from major chocolate producers slike Mars who recognize the need to make the industry sustainable” President Akufo-Addo added.
At a High-Level Event on Sustainable Energy for All hosted by Bloomberg Philanthropies in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on the eve of COP27, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo discussed Ghana’s framework for the energy transition.
He said it has become essential for Ghana to develop plans and strategies toward the creation of a net-zero energy sector, while zealously pursuing the country’s economic development, given that the country is a signatory to the Paris Agreement and other international conventions that require the country to reduce its levels of carbon dioxide emissions.
President Akufo-Addo also stated that “we will continue to increase the share of renewable energy in our electricity generation mix, as well as explore the options of hydrogen gas and other clean energy sources to meet our energy needs”
According to President Akufo-Addo, “Energy transition has become a global responsibility for us all, especially in view of the impact of climate change, and the global energy crisis brought forth by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
“Our updated Nationally Determined Contributions, under the Paris Agreement, affirm the country’s resolve to address the impacts of climate change and build a resilient economy for our people”, he stressed.
President Akufo-Addo continued, “Ghana’s position on energy transition is to continue the responsible exploitation of our natural resources for our development and transition at our own pace. The Government of Ghana is mindful of the actions of the developed countries in relation to energy transition, and their effect on us.”
To this end, he told the gathering that it has thus, become necessary for the Government of Ghana to develop an Energy Transition Framework that will guide the country, as the entire world moves towards realizing net zero status.
The President also said that the Government of Ghana, being mindful of the implications of such a framework and its implementation on the entire economy, directed the Committee to undertake extensive stakeholder consultations, in addition to expert input, to produce the National Energy Transition Framework to guide its transition to a net-zero economy by 2070 in a just and equitable manner, as well as minimise possible stranded assets and job losses in the oil and gas sector.
He added that the total cost of the transition is estimated at US$561.8 billion.
Energy Transition
President Akufo-Addo also addressed the High-Level Meeting on “Just Energy Transition”, where he indicated that Ghana has developed a National Energy Transition Framework to provide the vision and guidance for Ghana’s energy transition.
In preparing this framework, the President stated that all existing policies were considered and the programmes that are being implemented towards achieving Ghana’s Nationally Determined Contributions.
“Wide stakeholder consultations were held to ensure that the energy transition issues in various parts of the country were captured and addressed in the framework. These included organized and non-organized labour, market women, academia, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS), Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), Development Partners (DPs) and the international community,” he said.
He explained that the Framework provides the optimal and sustainable pathway for fuel supply security, diversified energy mix and cost-efficient electricity generation, with an estimated generation tariff of less than US$4.5cents per kilowatt hour to accelerate the socio-economic development of Ghana.
“Ghana aims to achieve universal access by 2024. The Energy Transition Framework will meet future electricity demand of 380 Terawatt-hours, with a corresponding installed capacity of 83 Giga-Watts. Ghana’s diversified energy mix will include 21 Gigawatts of renewable energy installed capacity, which will provide the opportunity to enjoy a greater share in the renewable energy carbon credit market,” he added.
President continued, “the transition will mitigate 200 million tons of carbon dioxide of Green House Gas emissions, minimising energy-related indoor air pollution and associated diseases. It is estimated that forty-eight thousand, two hundred and eighteen (48,218) premature deaths will be avoided annually due to the improvement in air quality, resulting from the impact of the transition.”
Koku Anyidoho, a one-time presidential spokesperson has reacted to the ‘Kume preko‘ reloaded protest that took place over the weekend.
The protest which saw hundreds of Ghanaians clad in red and black and holding placards critical of the government was called by a private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu.
The lawyer decried the spate of economic mismanagement as a core plank for his call for the president and his vice to resign and hand over power to the Speaker of Parliament.
It is that demand that Anyidoho built his views around in a tweet dated November 6, 2022.
It read: “When a lawyer goes on demonstration to ask that the President and Vice President should resign; is he asking for a coup?”
Kpebu speaks at protest
Kpebu led hundreds of demonstrators who marched through the capital on Saturday demanding the immediate resignation of President Akufo-Addo over Ghana’s current economic woes.
Addressing protesters during the march, he said: “We are dying; citizens are dying; citizens can’t afford food; citizens are starving all because of misgovernance by President Akufo-Addo.
“It never happened that you have a president in office and every time that the country borrows, the president’s family becomes richer; how? This can’t continue.
“We can’t borrow all the time and have Databank becoming richer all the time. Citizens have a duty as stated in Article 41 [of the Constitution] to ask the president to resign and this is not the first time that a president of Ghana is going to resign,” Martin Kpebu said.
What Akufo-Addo said about Ghana being in a crisis
Amid an economic downturn, calls for Akufo-Addo to resign has heightened with a November 5, 2022 protest dubbed ‘Kume Preko Reloaded’ making the loudest call as activists and politicians marched in Accra to press home that demand.
The government is meanwhile, grappling with an economic crisis, which along with the galamsey scourge and corruption are the major drivers for the call on Akufo-Addo to resign along with his Vice President, Mahamadu Bawumia.
Akufo-Addo in his October 30 address on the economy blamed the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as causes for the country’s economic woes.
While admitting that the country was in crisis and rallying support for various government interventions to stem the tide, he said the situation was not peculiar to the country as many nations across the world were also experiencing difficulties.
“We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time.
“But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems, but the long-term structural problems that have bedevilled our economy,” he said.
But like before, President Akufo-Addo blamed the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as causative factors for the economic woes.
When a lawyer goes on demonstration to ask that the President and Vice President should resign; is he asking for a coup?
In a Facebook post dated November 5, 2022, Mahama observed that it was particularly worrying that price of items were going up by the hour in some cases.
“Prices of items including everyday medication, salt, gari and cooking oil, are constantly on the rise. If you do not buy an item at a particular point in time, you are likely to find that the price has significantly increased a few hours later.
“Small entrepreneurs are frustrated as they break their backs to keep their businesses open against great odds. This is not just an installment in cyclical hardships, and we should not pretend that it is,” his post read.
High inflation and a depreciating cedi are two of the most visible signs of a distressed economy.
Mahama has through social media posts and public lectures called on government to take responsibility and reverse the tide in some cases proffering possible solutions.
What Akufo-Addo said about Ghana being in a crisis
Akufo-Addo in his October 30 address on the economy blamed the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as causes for the country’s economic woes.
“We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time.
“But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems, but the long-term structural problems that have bedeviled our economy,” he said.
But like before, President Akufo-Addo blamed the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as causative factors for the economic woes.
The lecturer told Starr News that changing the way employees work is the best approach for firms to ease the current economic troubles.
“Employers should implement a hybrid system of working where employees are not required to report to work on a regular basis.
That may aid in cost savings.
especially when it comes to transportation expenses, which account for a sizable amount of employees’ salary.
“Such approach can also help, this is not something new. During COVID a lot of people were working from home. When COVID went down a bit we are seeing employers encouraging employees to be coming back to the office,” the associate professor advised.
He also advised the average Ghanaian to try as much as possible to focus on necessities and not luxury.
Meanwhile, the Economic Fighters League has embarked on the ‘Kum me Preko’ demonstration in Accra over the current economic difficulties.
The demonstration was meant to pile pressure for the resignation of President Akufo-Addo and his Vice Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for non-performance.
Addressing the media ahead of the demonstration, Mr. Kpebu stated that Ghana’s Constitution has made room for smooth elections to be conducted when the President and Vice resign from office.
“We have a duty as stated in Article 41 to ask the President to resign. And this is not the first time the President of Ghana is going to resign. In actual fact in the 60s General Ankrah resigned over a matter of GHC6,000 that he is alleged to have used to bribe somebody to organize an opinion.
“So that he can be declared as the most popular President in Ghana. So ladies and gentlemen where we are as at now in Ghana, the situation is so dire that the best thing is for President Akufo-Addo to take responsibility and resign with his Vice Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia,” Mr. Kpebu indicated.
He continued: “Indeed the Constitution has envisaged the situation. That’s why it has been provided in Article 6 that the President may resign from office, the Vice President may resign as well. So Article 66 says the President may just give his resignation to the Speaker of Parliament.”
Dubbed ‘Kume preko reloaded’ the demonstration was to protest the current economic crisis, as was seen in 1995 when Charles Wereko-Brobby led some Ghanaians (including Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who is currently the President) to contest the economic hardship under the Rawlings regime.
Not even an ongoing church service at the Independence Square could stop the Ku me Preko demonstrators from conveying their message to the President, his Vice and the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
Their message was simple; the aforementioned persons must resign over the current economic hardships or risk being impeached.
The protestors could not fathom why a man who played a key role in the 1995 Kume preko demonstration would be in power, and supervise the collapse of the economy.
They had been marching from the Obra Spot in Circle and were hoping to end their march at the Independent Square as agreed with the Ghana Police Service.
To their utter surprise, there was an ongoing church service at the Independence Square when they got there; a situation which did not sit down well with the protestors. There was a little agitation, with some protestors hooting at the church members, however, calm was restored shortly.
This incident did not stop them from relaying their message to the President. They converged around the statue of the soldier facing the Independence Arch, and outlined their plights; key among them was a call on the President to immediately “slash the prices of fuel by 50%.”
They lamented the failure of the government to redeem Ghanaians from the situation, as President Akufo-Addo promised.
According to the protestors, the President has plunged the country into extreme poverty, citing the hikes in prices of goods, the fall of the cedi, the astronomical surge in fuel prices, etc.
Some prominent personalities who graced the occasion included Private Legal Practitioner, Martin Kpebu, who was the convenor of this demonstration, #FixTheCountry convenor, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, and a host of others.
Calls for President Akufo-Addo to resign as Ghana’s president have become intense as hundreds of protestors thronged the streets of Accra.
The aggrieved citizens clad in red and black attires are demonstrating against the country’s current economic state.
The cedi had lost more than 30% of its purchasing power against the US dollar as of September, partly pushing inflation rate to 37.2 per cent, the highest in almost two decades.
The local currency is selling at about GHS13.7182 against the dollar on the forex.
Currently, a litre of petrol is going for about GHS18, and that for diesel, close to GHS24, as such, transport operators have increased transport fares.
Meanwhile Ghanaians are demanding that government should relief the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta as well as the Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Charles Adu Boahen of their duties.
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah says President Akufo-Addo is the most caring political leader in the history of Ghana.
According to him, doting measures by President Akufo-Addo to protect the citizenry from the deadly Covid-19 pandemic clearly show how his government cares about Ghanaians.
Addressing journalists during a press conference in Kumasi on Thursday, November 4, 2022, Hon Simon Osei Mensah explained that the government’s decision to give out free electricity and free water and pay workers who were not working, among others would go down in the history books as one of the most charitable presidents.
“Have you ever wondered why President Akufo-Addo has gained admiration from across the African continent and beyond? If you ask me, I will tell you it is due to how he handled the pandemic with utmost human face leading to one of the lowest mortality rates Covid-19 recorded in any country after the Covid-19 outbreak “.
Appreciation to the President
Hon Simon Osei Mensah eulogized President Akufo-Addo over his four-day tour of the Ashanti Region.
The tour, he believes, was a huge blessing to the good people of the Ashanti Region as it saw the commissioning and sod cutting of major landmark projects in the region.
Hon Simon Osei Mensah explained that President Akufo-Addo’s visit had dismissed claims that the NPP government has neglected the region in its developmental agenda.
He added that some projects inspected by the president, such as the Maternity Block at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, the second phase of the Kejetia Redevelopment project, Boankra Inland Port project, among others, are a clear testimony that the Ashanti Region has also benefited from the current NPP government.
The outspoken congressman demanded immediate action by reconsidering plans, policies, and programs to guarantee Ghana gets weaned off contributions and outside help without going into detail about the facts of his accusation.
“The economy is tough and business is tough. I would be dishonest if I sat here and claimed differently. I have to acknowledge that times are difficult.
“But there is hope and what we should bear in mind is that it is situations like this that births inventions and innovations,” he stressed.
He related to pragmatic policies citing the touted policies of Dan Lartey’s Great Consolidated Popular Party, GCPP, and the Acheampong era. “We should put policies in place to help us live as normal human beings created by God.
He also referred to a list of imports and how much it costs, advancing thus, “let us address the importation of certain goods, import substitutions and build more factories,” citing how the 1D1F projects can help build an export-oriented economy as compared to the import-dependent one Ghana is grappling with.
Later that morning, a group of NPP MPs held a press conference demanding the removal of the Finance Minister over his management of the economy and the hard times that citizens were facing.
President Akufo-Addo intervened and got a concession on two grounds, that the Minister be allowed to conclude initial talks with the International Monetary Fund and present the 2022 budget and see to passage of its appropriation.
The president has also addressed the nation on the economic challenges and how the government intends to tackle them.
“As usual, the administration has declined to reply to the petition that was sent to its office.
Even after numerous follow-ups by this group’s leadership, not even an acknowledgement of receipt, “claimed the group during a news conference.
Some aggrieved customers of the embattled Gold Coast Fund Management (GCFM), now Blackshield Fund Management, has accused President Nana Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of contributing to their suffering and inability to retrieve investments from the firm, a subsidiary of Groupe Nduom, chaired by Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom.
Groupe Nduom said the government owes some of its subsidiaries some GHS2 billion, a situation that has incapacitated the company from living up to its obligations to its clients.
At a press conference on Tuesday, 5 November 2019, the group said the government has failed to intervene in the matter and failed to honour its financial obligations to GCFM in order for the firm to advance payments to them.
On the back of a recent protest and petition on 15 October 2019, the group said: “The government, as per its usual posture, has again refused to respond to the petition submitted to its outfit. Not even acknowledgement of receipt even after several follow-ups by the leadership of this group”.
The incensed group members said: “The government of Ghana, under President Akufo-Addo, is partly to be blamed for the pains, the suffering, the mental torture, the sleepless nights and the poor living conditions of GCFM customers”.
They do not understand “the loud silence by the government on our issue”.
The group said the government has also failed to respond to their plea “to pay its indebtedness to Gold Coast Fund Management, a situation the company argues to be the direct reason for their inability to honour their obligations to the customers, which situation had led to indescribable hardship on customers and in some cases even death”.
They are, therefore, requesting the following:
1. Government should pay immediately, all the interim payment certificates (IPCs) due GCFM and thereafter compel GCFM and Dr Nduom to pay their customers.
2. Government should raise the IPCs of completed projects for payment.
3. Government must pay his indebtedness to GCFM or give comfort letters to allow GCFM raise the needed funds to pay their customers.
4. Government should terminate the appointment of Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh for failing to regulate the activities of GCFM, which has culminated in our current predicament.
5. Government should put on hold all attempts to close down and liquidate GCFM since this situation will rather worsen the already ailing plights of customers.
He pointed out that some progress had been made in the agriculture sector as a result of the government’s key initiatives.
“This resulted in the creation of the initiative “Planting for Food and Jobs” (PFJ), which offered strategic direction for achieving the stated objectives, in April 2017.
According to President Akufo-Addo, the program’s primary goal was to increase the output and productivity of a few key food crops through the distribution of drastically discounted enhanced seeds and fertilizers.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says his tenure of office, over the last three years and ten months has seen to the creation of a vibrant agricultural sector in Ghana, with the country, during the period, transformed into a net exporter of foodstuffs.
Speaking at the 36th Farmers’ Day celebration, which was held on Friday, 6th November 2020, in Techiman, capital of the Bono East Region, the President noted that, in the immediate years before his assumption of office, the performance of the agricultural sector was nothing short of abysmal, evidenced by growth rates of 0.9% in 2014 and 2.9% in 2016.
In order to remedy the situation, he told the gathering that his Government took the bold decision to embark on a well-thought-through programme for the modernisation and transformation of Ghana’s agriculture, which included increasing productivity on smallholding farms; enhancing food security; diversifying agricultural export earnings; promoting agro-industrialization and import substitution, and creating jobs for the youth.
“This led to the birth of the programme for “Planting for Food and Jobs” (PFJ), in April 2017, which provided strategic direction for realising the stated objectives. The initial focus of the programme was to support the productivity and output of selected food crops, through the provision of heavily subsidised improved seeds and fertilizers,” President Akufo-Addo said.
He continued, “The PFJ has since evolved, over the years, to reflect the comprehensive nature of Government’s strategy to improve agriculture with the introduction of five modules, i.e. food crops, Planting for Export and Rural Development (Tree Crops Module), Rearing for Food and Jobs (Livestock Module), Greenhouse Villages (Horticulture Module), and Farm Mechanisation and Agro-processing (Mechanisation Module).”
All five modules, the President explained, have contributed to the creation of the vibrant agriculture we are experiencing in Ghana, albeit with some of the modules yet to be fully implemented.
“Today, our nation has banished the disgraceful spectre of importing tomatoes and plantain from Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire respectively, we are now a net exporter of food, and our youth are venturing into fulltime agriculture,” he added.
According to President Akufo-Addo, the food crops module has resulted in an appreciable increase in yields of selected staples, with those of maize and rice, for example, increasing by 110% and 48% respectively from 2016 to 2019, whilst local production of rice accounts for 50% of domestic demand, up from 32% as at 2017.
All of this, the President stressed, has been made possible by the substantial increase in the distribution of improved seeds to farmers, from 4,400 metric tons in 2016, to 18,333 metric tons in 2019, and 29,000 metric tons in 2020.
With Ghana making considerable strides in its efforts to increase the use of fertilizer, from 8kg per hectare in 2016 to 20kg per hectare at the end of 2019, he indicated that Government has, since 2017, recruited 2,700 extension officers, translating into an improved extension officer to farmer ratio, from 1:1,908 in 2016, to 1:706
Another major intervention under the food crop module, according to President Akufo-Addo, has been the construction of 80 one-thousand-metric ton capacity warehouses throughout the country.
Touching on the tree crops module of PFJ, popularly referred to as “Planting for Export and Rural Development” (PERD), which he launched in April 2019, President Akufo-Addo stated that Government has taken the decision to develop cashew, coffee, shea, mango, coconut, rubber and oil palm into cash crops, in addition to cocoa.
“The target for each of these selected crops is to earn a minimum of US$2 billion each year from 2028. This target translates to a total of some US$14 billion annually, compared to the US$2.3 billion from cocoa today,” he added.
This added focus, he stressed, “does not mean turning our back on the crop that has been the mainstay of the Ghanaian economy for over a hundred years – cocoa”, evidenced in the establishment of the $600 million National Cocoa Rehabilitation programme, and increase in the producer price for a bag of cocoa from GH¢415 to GH¢660, the highest ever in the nation’s history.
Livestock Module
Explaining the rationale for the establishment of this module, President Akufo-Addo indicated that the purpose of the module is to scale up local production of poultry and livestock, as well as to reduce the country’s dependence on meat imports, valued annually at US$340 million.
“Commencing in 2019, with the distribution of improved breeds of small ruminants, pigs and cockerels to farmers throughout the country, Government is currently facilitating access to concessionary loans for value chain actors to support production, processing and marketing of meat products. At full-scale, it is projected to reduce progressively the importation of meat products in the country by up to 70% by the year 2025”, he said.
Government, President Akufo-Addo said, is promoting the greenhouse village concept to ensure the production of high value vegetables for local consumption, and to enhance the competitiveness of Ghana’s horticulture products on the international market.
“I have, thus far, commissioned three (3) greenhouse villages at Dawhenya in the Greater Accra Region, Akumadan in the Ashanti Region, and Bawjiase in Central Region. Two hundred and ninety-six (296) university graduates and diploma holders have been trained, with one hundred and ninety (190) of them benefiting from an eleven (11) month paid internship in the Kibbutzim in Israel,” he added.
In order to move away from the dependence on manual labour that smallholder farmers have become accustomed to, President Akufo-Addo stated that Government, through the More Food Programme, has supplied 230 tractors and 11,450 assorted machinery and equipment from Brazil, since 2017.
Additionally, concessionary agreements have been concluded with India and the Czech Republic for the supply of a large consignment of farm and processing machinery, including hand-held farm implements to be sold at a subsidised rate.
“From 2021, the Exim Bank of India will facilitate the supply of farm machinery, agro-processing and other value-adding machines to the tune of one hundred and fifty million United States dollars (US$150 million),” he said.
Chairperson, let me also give an account of some of the other interventions put in place by Government to boost the development of agriculture.
With Ghana having, since independence, put only 3.2% of its arable land under irrigation, President Akufo-Addo told the gathering that “since 2017, the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) has completed 10 out of 14 small dams.”
Additionally, he added that the rehabilitation of the Kpong Left and Right bank irrigation schemes and the Tono irrigation scheme is ongoing, and, once completed, 7,690 hectares of land will be put under irrigation.
“Government has also initiated the construction of the Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam, which will put an additional 24,000 hectares of land under irrigation. Additionally, the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives has constructed some 500 small dams in the Northern Regions of Ghana,” he added.
One clear indicator attesting to the overwhelming success of the food crops module under the PFJ, according to President Akufo-Addo, is the export of Ghana foodstuffs to neighbouring countries.
“Based on official records at the Statistics Research and Information Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana exported some 130,000 metric tons of 19 different food items to neighbouring countries in 2018, valued at the equivalent of US$90 million. Reports of scores of traders from neighbouring countries in the ECOWAS Region doing brisk business in grains in the northern parts of the country are clear indications of the new business opportunities opening up in the country for agriculture,” he said.
Ken Ofori-Atta is heard highlighting the fact that the administrators of the economy recognized the task at hand even before taking office and continuing the current problems in an audio message uploaded on Joy FM’s social media accounts.
However, the finance minister acknowledged that the government is addressing ongoing issues and taking into account the resources at its disposal.
“Just to assure you that you have a finance minister who has gone through all the pains and aches and nobody can really come and say we don’t understand what we are doing.”
“The question is what resources do we have and how we are going to deploy them in the nation that we have in very difficult circumstances but being very confident that the nation is purposed for greatness and we are blessed to have the opportunity to lead where we are going,” Ken Ofori-Atta added.
“Let me assure you all that your best bet is still Ghana,” he told the gathering believed to be a group of investors but the time of the meeting is, however, unknown.
NPP MPs call for Ken Ofori-Atta, Charles Adu Boahen’s removal
A group of NPP MPs, numbering over 80, on October 25 held a press conference demanding the removal of the Finance Minister and Minister of State at the Ministry, Charles Adu Biahen, over management of the economy and hard times that citizens were facing.
President Akufo-Addo intervened and got a concession on two grounds, that the Ofori-Atta be allowed to conclude initial talks with the International Monetary Fund and present the 2022 budget and see to the passage of its appropriation.
The president has also addressed the nation on the economic challenges and how the government intends to tackle them.
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has recently stated that the view advanced by the Ken Must Go MPs is now the Majority position.
Meanwhile, the Minority Caucus is pushing a vote of censure to remove Ofori Atta from office.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dalex Finance and Leasing Company Limited Kenneth Thompson has begged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to as a matter of urgency take decisive action to restore Ghana to economic soundness.
Known simply as Ken Thompson, he dramatically went on his knees on the Face To Face programme hosted by Umaru Sanda Amadu on Accra-based Citi TV and pleaded with the president.
With pensive look he said, “His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa, what I can see coming is not good. If you’re watching me, what I can see coming is not good. I can see poverty, I can see job losses, I can see business closures, I can see prices going up – prices of electricity will go up, I can see it.”
He drew parallels between memories of his childhood and the current economic problems in Ghana.
“I lived through the 70s, I saw it. When my mother came back from England, she bought a brand new car – a Peugeot 403. I can see how eventually, she was unable to repair the car. She was involved in a crash – she was on her way to visit me – car crashed and that was the end of it. I remember very well how our carpets became very bare, how our chairs became broken, how we started wearing second-hand clothes – I’ve seen it,” he recalled.
Mr Thompson expressed faith in Mr Akufo-Addo to steer the nation clear of the imminent economic disaster he predicted also.
“I’m 61, I can’t do much about what’s happening now but you can [Mr President], and I’m begging you that please take decisive action – be decisive because I believe that you’re capable of it and let’s move this country forward,” he noted and added: “Thank you, Sir.”
Ghana is currently in an economic crisis admitted to by President Akufo-Addo who maintains it is mainly due to the COVID pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
In his Sunday, October 30, 2022, nation address, he also highlighted rife uninformed speculations and fear-mongering about the cedi as another reason for the sharp depreciation of the cedi against major global trading currencies such as the US dollar.
With all that said, he assured, “It is obvious, fellow Ghanaians, that you have a government that cares. We are determined to restore stability to the economy, and provide relief. We are all in this together, and I am asking for your support to rescue Ghana from the throes of this economic crisis.”
It has been impressed on the president from both the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) members to sack the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to restore faith in Ghana’s economy seeing as Mr Ofori-Atta has obviously failed in his office.
President Akufo-Addo has, however, argued, the Finance Minister needs to close the International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal before any such decision can be taken.
He noted that the measures needed time to take effect and had been properly included in the 2023 budget.
He stated that “the policy announced by the president in his address did not take effect immediately” in an interview with Angel FM on the Anopa Bofo Morning Show.
The details of what was said, including the suggestions made, would be made explicit in the 2023 budget.
The 2023 budget would include the specifics of the reforms.
The President in his address mentioned 12 policy measures targeted at tackling the cedi depreciation and putting the economy back on the track to recovery.
As part of the measures outlined, President Akufo-Addo pledged to restore debt sustainability by reducing debt to GDP to 55%, restoring macroeconomic stability through an IMF programme and tackle the high cost of living by stabilizing prices of petroleum products.
He also promised that there will be no hair cuts to treasury bill holders as well as a plan to reduce the importation of commodities like rice, poultry and vegetable oil.
The above-mentioned measures according to the NPP communicator will be catered for in the 2023 budget.
Asante Krobea commended the president for taking that bold step including the decision to slash budgeted discretionary expenditure by 30% and cutting down government appointees salaries by 30%.
He re-emphasized the president’s call for traders to be measured in their profit margins.
“As a patriotic citizen you don’t take advantage of a crisis to profiteer”, he pleaded.
The Minority Caucus in Parliament has called on the government and President Akufo-Addo to save the suffering masses now as there is a severe economic crisis.
According to John Jinapor, government can do something about the galloping fuel prices because Ghana has exceeded more than fourfolds of the annual projected oil revenue, and Ghanaians are suffering.
“Something can be done. The president said he was going to look for cheaper oil, from where? And he did not even give us timelines. This will not solve the problem, the only thing that can solve the problem is a practical way, and we have enumerated steps we can take to address the challenge we are going through,” he noted.
He is therefore calling on the government to take measures to address the dire needs of Ghanaians.
The Minority also urged government to revamp and operationalize the Tema Oil Refinery to provide Ghanaians with cheaper and sufficient petroleum products and avoid the hikes.
According to her, the project was solely funded by the Creative Arts Agency.
“For the avoidance of any doubt, it is important to state that these projects were solely conceived, managed, and financially undertaken by The Creative Arts Agency, through its own fundraising activities,” a statement by the agency noted.
The statement added that the project was not a profit-making venture, as has been reported on social media.
“It is a complete fabrication being propagated by some shameless persons, and which, unfortunately, has been published by sections of the media. This project was not embarked upon to make a profit, and there have been no lucrative contracts awarded for it,” it added.
Per details on the website of the Creative Arts Council’s website, cac.gov.gh, Gyankroma Akufo-Addo is the Director of the council.
Below is the full statement by Gyankoma Akufo-Addo:
Each site had a six-week workshop process to identify themes, locations, and artists. Each site was paid for with funds largely from the private sector, sourced solely by the Creative Arts Agency. No contract to paint a succession of bridges or underpasses has either been conceived, has ever been offered, or has ever been accepted. Indeed, any tender or contract awarded for such a project would have been made public.
For the avoidance of any doubt, it is important to state that these projects were solely conceived, managed, and financially undertaken by The Creative Arts Agency, through its own fundraising activities.
Site 1, Ako Adjei, was funded by the private sector.
Site 2, Tetteh Quarshie, was paid for by myself, Gyankroma Akufo-Addo.
Site 3, was completed through the generosity of the creatively minded Ben Asante, CEO of Ghana Gas, who understands its social community importance.
The paint used for each site, again, was provided by Coral Paints and its CEO, who understand the importance of pushing the visibility of Ghanaian artists. The absurdity of $25 million, or any amount for that matter, being awarded to myself to undertake this project is a disgusting narrative.
It is a complete fabrication being propagated by some shameless persons, and which, unfortunately, has been published by sections of the media. This project was not embarked upon to make a profit, and there have been no lucrative contracts awarded for it.
All efforts to undermine my credibility through the publication of these falsehoods and baseless lies will not wash. I have instructed my lawyer to seek redress in the law courts against persons and media houses that published these falsehoods with the sole intention of destroying my reputation.
A founding member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, has criticized President Akufo-Addo for failing to mention the menace of corruption and illegal small-scale mining in his address to Ghanaians on the hardship in the country.
In an XYZ TV interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe said that the country was losing a lot of money because of illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) and the president failing to mention it is telling.
He added that corruption, which the president also failed to mention, is the main cause of the hardship Ghanaians are currently facing.
“One thing that was surprising is that the president didn’t talk about galamsey when he was addressing the nation. He should have taken the opportunity to touch on the sensitive areas that have run the economy down.
“Because just as the Asantehene was saying the last time, the gold that comes out of our soil appears to be smuggled out. Our water bodies and forests are just being destroyed for nothing.
“He also failed to touch on corruption which shocked me. Because I can tell you that 70 percent of the problems we have now are because of corruption. And if that is put right, this country will have no problem. There is corruption from top to bottom; that was what I was expecting the president to address,” he said.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, during his address on Sunday, admitted that times are hard economically and that his government is working assiduously to provide relief to the citizenry.
He stressed in an address on the economy that his administration was ready to work towards restoring and resetting the economy on the path of progress and stability.
These views were contained in his October 30, 2022, address to the nation on the state of the economy.
“For us, in Ghana, our reality is that our economy is in great difficulty. The budget drawn for the 2022 fiscal year has been thrown out of gear, disrupting our balance of payments and debt sustainability, and further exposing the structural weaknesses of our economy.
“We are in a crisis; I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time,” he added.
“But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems but the long-term structural problems that have bedevilled our economy.
“I urge us all to see the decision to go to the International Monetary Fund in this light,” he stressed.
The government is expected to execute some sort of debt restructuring in the next 14 days, according to the NDC Minority Caucus in Parliament, which could have an impact on the investor community.
No individual or institutional investor, including pension funds, in government treasury bills or other instruments will lose money as a result of the ongoing IMF negotiations, President Akufo-Addo has promised Ghanaians.
The minority leader Haruna Iddrisu responded to the President’s comments by arguing that debt restructuring is unavoidable given the catastrophic status of Ghana’s economy.
He said contrary to President Akufo-Addo’s claim that there will be ‘No haircuts’, investors in government bonds and other pension funds will be adversely affected by the move.
“We are assuring the people of Ghana, we’re assuring investors, people with savings, people with investments in instruments that there will be a barber of a sort, probably that barber will be Sika mp3 dede barber.
“Whether it affects domestic investment or domestic instruments, we’re giving you only fourteen days from today, you’ll hear from them publicly, efforts to restructure our unsustainable debt, and those efforts will necessarily include a Sika mp3 dede barber for many persons who have investment and savings in some instrument,” he told Journalists in Parliament.
“The President failed to accept responsibility that he’s responsible for the sorry state of the Ghanaian economy and he’s responsible for the wrenched economy which has consequences on livelihoods, poverty has exacerbated, cost of living has gone high, cost of doing business high, many businesses are folding up, some industries are now re-routing their investments into neighbouring Ivory Coast and other countries because Ghana is no longer the investment haven as it should be.”
Ghanaian statesman and politician Dr. Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe has alleged that President Akufo-Addo refused to meet two top retired generals, General Brigadier Joseph Nunoo-Mensah and General Napoleon Ashley-Lassen, over a pressing security issue.
According to him, the generals, who have both served the nation as Chief of Defence Staff, wanted to inform the president of a potential security threat to Ghana, but Akufo-Addo did not give them an audience, which is a shame.
“Believe it or not, two retired generals… General Brigadier Nunoo-Mensah and General Ashley Lassen, have both been chief of staff before in this country. They watched carefully about a couple of months ago, and they realised security was at its lowest end.
“They wanted to see the president; the president refused to see them… This happened this year. They (the retired generals) have the experience, and they wanted to see you the president. Where on this planet will any president refuse to see such top people?
“If I’m telling lies, he should come out and say it. The generals know that things were going bad, and they wanted to whisper in his ears or tell him what to do so that there will be calm in this country,” he said.
Dr Nyaho-Tamakloe, a founding member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), previously alleged that, but for the intervention of the NPP MPs, Ghana was on the verge of experiencing a military coup.
According to him, the call for the dismissal of the finance minister wiped away the plot.
He advised the president to learn from this development as the actions of the NPP MPs are unprecedented.
“Those who made this intervention have saved the 4th republic. We were getting close to military intervention, but the MPs’ actions yesterday totally wiped it off, and I think the country should learn from that as well. Akufo-Addo, as I know, will definitely make attempts to change their minds; if they instead allow that, then they will be [the] most hated people in this country or on the political landscape,” he said in an interview with TV3’s Big Issue show.
The Minority in Parliament is asking the government to use part of the over GH¢8 billion revenue accrued from petroleum products to cushion petroleum consumers against the current price hikes.
The Minority says the government has received over GH¢8 billion from petroleum resources
in less than 3 months, as against its GH¢6 billion projection for the year.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, November 2, 2022, the Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, John Jinapor urged the government to act in halting the escalation of fuel prices which he bemoans has seen over 300 percent increase in less than a year.
“In less than three months, the government has received over GH¢8 billion from our petroleum resources. So in three months, the government has received more than it projected for the whole year, so government is making supernormal profits. In fact, even the Price Stabilization and Recovery Levy which are supposed to subsidize fuel, government projected that in the first two quarters, it will receive GH¢269 million and as we speak, from the Ministry of Finance’s own record, the Government has received GH¢800 million. And so this notion that Government is not making any money is a fallacy”.
“Government is making so much money from our petroleum resources, I, therefore, call on President Akufo-Addo and the outgoing Minister of Finance that they should do something about this pricing increment. They should sit up and think outside the box and apply these supernormal profits to cushion the ordinary Ghanaians.”
Mr. Jinapor indicated that the economic crisis worsens by the day as he receives calls every day from some of his constituents seeking diverse assistance to enable them to stay afloat.
“I receive calls every day from members in the Constituency from people who cannot even afford one square meal a day, people who cannot even send their kids to school because of the exorbitant fuel prices which are having a cascading effect on food prices, and general cost of living.”
“We hold the view that Government can do something about the fuel price increment, Government must sit up, Government must do something and the Government must cushion the ordinary Ghanaians.”
The Forum called on the teaching fraternity to rally their support behind the new Director General to discharge his mandate in an efficient and effective manner.
Mr Michael Mensah, the President of the Forum, said this when a delegation of members of the Forum paid a courtesy call on Dr Nkansah in Accra.
“As concerned teachers in the Ashanti Region, we thought it wise to pay him a visit and congratulate him on his appointment at the highest level of the Service.
“We have seen him visiting some schools within the Accra metropolis and talking about his plans and policies for stakeholders in the sector, which is worth emulating as a leader,” he said.
He said, ” Dr Nkansah is a true educationist who has taught at Kintanpom Senior High School and we believe he has the urge to spearhead the affairs of the Service.”
With his background in the banking sector, Mr Mensah believed that the new GES Director General would work seamlessly to facilitate the Service’s financial issues.
Dr Nkansah appointment was met with opposition, mostly from a section of the union bodies.
Mr Mensah, however, encouraged him to be steadfast and see the criticism as a challenge to be focused on and work harder for the growth of the Service.
Dr Nkansah responded by thanking President Akufo-Addo for the confidence reposed in him and promised to serve diligently while adhering to the service’s tenets.
He pledged to prioritise the welfare of teaching and non-teaching staff of pre-tertiary institutions across the country.
He was hopeful of addressing issues relating to promotion, upgrading, and other pertinent concerns to build confidence among members to give their best and improve learning outcomes.
“We need to create 21st century skills where students will be taught to be critical thinkers to be fit for purpose,” he said.
He stated that the vision of President Akufo-Addo was to increase the transition rate from Senior High School to tertiary education and noted that this could be achieved by a concerted effort by all stakeholders in the education space.
Dr Nkansah was appointed by President Akufo-Addo, effective October 19, 2022, pursuant to Section 19(1), 2(a) and (b) of the Pre-tertiary Education Act, 2020(Act 1049).
Some religious leaders in the country have suggested to President Akufo-Addo to as a matter of urgency ban illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) in the country.
According to these religious leaders, the country’s water bodies and their accompanying reservoirs have all been depleted by the activities of illegal miners.
In a meeting with the President on November 1, 2022, at the Jubilee House, the religious leaders, who were alarmed by the operations of illegal miners, explained that banning all forms of mining will go a long way in restoring sanity in galamsey enclaves.
Speaking on behalf of the clergy, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Rt. Rev. Professor Joseph Obiri Mante lamented that differentiating between small-scale mining and galamsey has become a herculean task.
“Now we cannot tell whether those who are doing legal mining have turned out to be illegal, we don’t know which one is galamsey and so on and so forth, we are just wondering if it will be possible to place a ban on all small scale mining. Just to make a statement, we know we get money (from galamsey) but at what cost,” he said during the meeting.
Nefarious activities by illegal miners in the country have become a topical issue, with a section of Ghanaians calling on the President to regulate their activities.
On November 1, consumers of petroleum products started to notice a noticeable increase in pricing at various pumps, with gasoline and diesel selling for about GH17.99 and GH23.49, respectively.
In response to the news, Dr. Sarkodie thinks the government’s choice could assist regulate fuel costs and curb the nation’s mounting inflationary pressures.
However, he emphasized the importance of moving quickly toward buying less expensive oil products from other nations and sources.
“The President [Akufo-Addo] touched on so many things. Key among them is the high cost of living, high food and energy prices and the fact that he’s doing something about it. For example, he has started negotiations with other sources of oil; other countries or companies that produce oil at a lower price and also to keep the exchange rate stable,” he is quoted by Joy Business.
“I think that will also help check the price of the fuel because we know the high cost of fuel price is driving the high cost of prices of items through high transport costs in the country”, the economist explained.
Dr Sarkodie further pointed out that should government be able to stabilise fuel prices across the country, it would result in a reduction of food prices and other goods on the market which has contributed to rising inflation.
“So, if we are able to control fuel prices, we would be able to control prices of so many items within the economy,” he added.
To say ‘times are hard’ in Ghana now will only be stating the obvious, and for President Akufo-Addo to have confirmed the same only reaffirms the fact that the country is faced with very trying times.
From the crumbling Ghana cedi against foreign currencies like the United States dollar to the ever-rising prices of fuel, the soaring food prices and general standards of living, truly, the country is not in normal times.
In his words, President Akufo-Addo has assured Ghanaians that he will turn things around just as, he added, he has done before.
“For us in Ghana, our reality is that our economy is in great difficulty.
“We are in a crisis; I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time,” excerpts of his address to the nation on Sunday, October 30, 2022, read.
But while the president sought to indicate that there has never been a time in history where so many forces have come together to affect the country, there actually has been such a time before.
In fact, in that ‘such a time,’ when Ghana experienced one of its toughest economic downturns, it has emerged that there are some spooky similarities between those two years: 1983 and 2022.
It has emerged that the same calendar used in 1983 is the same calendar that is currently being used in the year 2022. For more clarity, if you look at the calendar of 1983 and 2022, it is the same thing.
Even more interesting is the fact that 1983 in Ghana was a time of a great food drought, while in 2022, the country is experiencing harsh economic difficulties.
A mere case of coincidence? Well, let’s look at the striking similarities between these two years that history appears to be repeating.
About the 1983 drought in Ghana:
The following description of what happened in 1983 was written by Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng and first published on GhanaWeb on May 13, 2013.
The year 1983 perhaps was the harshest year in Ghana’s modern history.
The year 1983 did not start well. One of the harshest droughts was in progress. There had been little meaningful rain since 1981; that is, it has either rained little or the rain had come at the wrong place and time. The drought could not have come at the worst possible moment.
To understand the full import of what happened, a bit of history is in order. The most unsettled decade for this country has to be the 1970s, the years during which, for good or ill, the chickens of the Nkrumah overthrow in 1966 came home to roost.
Maybe the Progress Party government of Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia could have succeeded in its policy of rural development, but we have no way of knowing because it lasted only 27 months. In the meantime, it managed to sell off state assets in a manner that foreshadowed other economic controversies, some would say disasters, in the following decades.
In January 1972, Colonel Kutu Acheampong and his close friends staged a military coup and took over the country. They did not appear to have any development strategy, but they managed to infuse a sense of purpose and urgency around their slogan of “Operation Feed Yourself” and a mild form of pan-Africanism and Nkrumaist orientation, later to be described as “domestication” by the late Dan Lartey who was one of their civilian advisers.
In 1975, Acheampong’s closest comrades in their National Redemption Council government were demoted to a second tier of government in a palace coup staged by the most senior officers in all branches of the military. They formed the Supreme Military Council, still with Acheampong as head but without the esprit de corps he enjoyed with his demoted friends, who quietly left the centre stage of government.
The SMC had no policies except staying in power through some of the most disastrous economic crises we have ever known. This article is not the place to go into the details of those policies and their consequences, except to remind us that almost all sections of society rose up against the government.
Trapped and with nowhere to go, the SMC tried one last trick; this was the “Union Government” (UNIGOV), an ill-defined coalition of civilians, soldiers and police officers. A botched referendum was the last straw, and yet another palace coup overthrew Acheampong in 1978 and replaced him with General F.W.K. Akuffo, who was generally acknowledged to be a first-class military officer but untested as a political leader. He is the man who used military discipline and precision to lead Ghana’s switch from driving on the left to the right in 1974 without a single accident on the day of the change.
However, his attempts, first to continue the UNIGOV scam under a different guise and then absolve the military of blame, did not sit well with soldiers and civilians.
On June 4 1979, a fortnight before the first general elections in a decade, a group of young soldiers overthrew the Akuffo government as they successfully released a certain Air force officer from custody at the Special Branch headquarters where he had been held since leading a failed insurrection on May 15 that year.
That young air force officer, of course, was Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, who needs no introduction in this discussion. On the last day of the year 1981, Rawlings, who had retired from the military, led another insurrection to overthrow the Limann-led Peoples National Party government, which had been in office since the Rawlings insurrectionist gave up power three months after their coup.
Flt Lt Rawlings announced at the beginning of his insurrectionary regime that it was a “revolution”, and the revolution’s first year saw the country economically destabilised partly by the revolutionaries’ own activities and by international pressure. Squeezed by international commercial lenders, Ghana’s credit dwindled and disappeared. Our credit was not a lot to start with; Nigeria had to bring in truckloads of gifts, including toilet rolls, to soften our difficulties during Christmas! Understandably, life got very difficult for most citizens of this country.
In the meantime, as the lack of raw materials shut local production of everything, we could make ourselves there was no money to import anything and yet warehouses had been emptied by revolutionaries pursuing social justice.
The revolutionaries had a point, even if it was excessively expressed. Ghana could not continue on the path, whichever it was, that had driven us that far. The nation needed restructuring, and whether a political revolution was the ideal way to perform this all-out change in those circumstances still needs to be debated in this country. There is a Japanese proverb that says, “although the sign reads, do not pluck these flowers from this garden, it is useless against the wind which does not read”. The drought did not read the revolutionary script and deepened as 1982 turned into 1983.
There had been little notice in the Ghanaian media that Nigeria had given a very strict and final ultimatum in 1982 to foreigners there to “regulate” their stay or be kicked out early in 1983. It is difficult not to conclude that Nigeria’s actions were in some way retaliation for Ghana’s own eviction of foreigners, mostly Nigerians, some fourteen years earlier.
More than one million Ghanaians had to pack bags and baggage and head home. They came into an empty country. Food was scarce and disappearing fast, and although our “returnees” came with some nicely painted bags known as “Ghana Must Go” and many stories of atrocities, none brought a morsel of food to add to the national stock.
Ghana at present:
The government of Ghana has routinely explained that recent economic headwinds are attributable largely to the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the banking sector clean-up.
The rippling effect has been an increase in the cost of living, high inflation rates and downgrades of the economy by rating agencies such as S&P and Fitch – a situation which has dealt a heavy blow to government’s ability to access the international capital market.
The Cedi has also been on a free fall compelling the Bank of Ghana to resort to hiking its monetary policy rate to deal with the situation.
The worsening economic situation compelled the government in July to initiate contact with International Monetary Fund for an economic support programme.
Ghana is targeting an amount of US$3 billion over three years from the Fund once an agreement on a programme is reached.
Government hopes to complete negotiations by the end of this year in order to receive the funds in the first quarter of 2023.
The minority caucus in parliament has said President Akufo-Addo failed to take responsibility for the economic mess during his national address to the state on Sunday, 30 October 2022.
Even though the president assured Ghanaians that there would be no haircuts on their investments, the minority caucus insists there would.
Addressing the media on Tuesday, 1 November 2022, Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu said: “We are giving you only 14 days from today, and you will hear from them publicly, efforts to restructure our unsustainable debt, and those efforts will necessarily include a sika mpɛ dede baba [mallam] for many persons who have investments and savings in some instruments.”
“Those of you who listen to [Kristalina] Georgieva of the IMF, you will recall a few months ago when the World Bank and the IMF, particularly led by its Managing Director, were again categorical that they didn’t see anything wrong with Government policy. We now state that there is everything wrong with Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government and his economic management team’s policy on borrowing. Borrowing is a policy. You decide to borrow and how much to borrow and where to direct the borrowing. So, if you now borrow to the level of debt distress, to the level of unsustainable debt, to the level that you are now talking about ratio of 105% of GDP as your debt level and then he, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the president of the Republic, added that he hopes that Ghana’s debt-to-GDP will improve to 55% by 2028, we ask the question, where will he be?” M Iddrisu added.
He noted: “As a minority group, we believe the president failed to accept responsibility that he is responsible for the sorry state of the Ghanaian economy, and he is responsible for the wrench economy which has consequences on livelihoods”.
“Poverty has exacerbated, cost of living has gone high, cost of doing business has gone high, many businesses are folding up, and some industries are now re-routing their investments into neighbouring Ivory Coast and other countries because Ghana is no longer the investment haven as it should be.”
Read the president’s full speech below:
ADDRESS TO THE NATION BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC, NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFO-ADDO, ON THE ECONOMY, ON SUNDAY, 30TH OCTOBER 2022.
Fellow Ghanaians, good evening.
Back in 2020, at the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, I started a regular conversation with you that came to be popularly known as Fellow Ghanaians.
It was a time of great fear of the unknown, and the entire world felt at risk. I came into your homes regularly to tell you what the experts were discovering about the virus, and what we should do.
Now that we have seen the worst of the COVID-19, I can tell you that there were moments during those times when I was distraught, there were moments when I was in despair about the apparent inadequacy of our health facilities, and there were moments when I wondered if the dire predictions made about dead bodies on our streets would truly happen.
But I knew that I owed it to all of us that, as your president, I had to hold my nerve, show leadership and take us out of the crisis. With your help and support, and the great mercies of the Almighty, we can say that we emerged from the ravages of the pandemic with one of the lowest mortality rates globally. In fact, Ghana’s handling of the pandemic won universal acclaim.
We could all see in real time the devastation that was being wreaked on economies during the pandemic, but I doubt that anyone imagined the extent of the damage. Our economy, here in Ghana, like many, many others around the globe, was thrown into turmoil.
When I said, at the height of the COVID pandemic, that we knew what to do to bring the economy back to life, but not how to bring people back to life, it was not said in jest. We had done it before, and we were on course to doing it again. Ghana’s economy grew by a remarkable 5.4% in 2021, signifying a strong recovery from the 0.5% growth recorded the previous year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, in the last quarter of 2021, our economy grew at seven percent (7%), only for the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the first quarter of this year to aggravate the effects of COVID-19, and plunge the global economy into even greater turmoil from which it has not yet recovered.
The whole world has been taken aback by the speed with which inflation has eaten away people’s incomes. Economies, big and small, have experienced, over this year alone, the highest rise in cost of living over a generation; the highest rise in government borrowing in over fifty (50) years; the highest rise in inflation for forty (40) years; the steepest depreciation in their currencies to the US dollar over the last thirty (30) years; the fastest peak in interest rates for over twenty (20) years; and the greatest threat of unemployment in peace time; with over a hundred million people being pushed into extreme poverty.
Between the end of 2019 and now, inflation in Ghana has increased by five-fold, in Togo by sixteen-fold, by eleven-fold in Senegal, and by seven-fold in Cote d’Ivoire. In truth, however, the fact that there are petrol queues in France does not make it more tolerable that the trotro price from Kasoa to Circle has doubled in the past one year, nor does it make it any more tolerable that the price of cooking oil goes up every other week.
It is important to state that mentioning the increases in prices worldwide is not meant to belittle the scope of suffering here, but simply to help us put things into some perspective, and, hopefully, learn some useful lessons about how other people are coping.
Fellow Ghanaians, this is why I am back in your homes this evening to ask for your support, as we work together to get our economy back into good shape.
In April, after the Cabinet retreat of the first quarter, and recognising the deteriorating macro economy, my government announced a thirty percent (30%) cut in budgeted discretionary expenditures, and a thirty percent (30%) cut in salaries of the President, Vice President, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, MMDCEs and political office holders, amongst other measures.
And, since July, when the Government took the difficult decision to go to the IMF to seek support, I have been speaking publicly at different fora on the subject of the economic difficulties we face, especially during my recent tours, so far, of nine (9) regions, and interacting directly with you, the Ghanaian people. It is also true that many of you have felt the need for me to come back to the Fellow Ghanaians format that brings us all together.
For us, in Ghana, our reality is that our economy is in great difficulty. The budget drawn for the 2022 fiscal year has been thrown out of gear, disrupting our balance of payments and debt sustainability, and further exposing the structural weaknesses of our economy.
We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time. But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems, but the long-term structural problems that have bedeviled our economy.
I urge us all to see the decision to go to the International Monetary Fund in this light. We have gone to the Fund to repair, in the short term, our public finances, and restore our balance of payments, whilst we continue to work on the medium to long-term structural changes that are at the heart of our goal of constructing a resilient, robust Ghanaian economy, and building a Ghana Beyond Aid.
I am able to report to you, my fellow Ghanaians, that the negotiations to secure a strong IMF Programme, which will support the implementation of our Post COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth and additional funding to support the 2023 Budget and development programme, are at advanced stages, and are going well.
We are determined to secure these arrangements quickly to bring back confidence and relief to Ghanaians. We are working towards reaching a deal with the IMF by the end of the year. This will give further credence to the measures the Government is taking to stabilise and grow the economy, as well as shore up our currency.
I know that the increasing cost of living is the number one concern for all of us. It is driven by fast-escalating fuel prices at the pumps, which is caused by high crude oil prices on the world market and our depreciated currency. I know that this is putting intolerable pressure on families and businesses. I know that people are being driven to make choices they should not have to make, and I know that it has led to the devaluation of capital of traders and painfully accumulated savings. Furthermore, Government is working to secure reliable and regular sources of affordable petroleum products for the Ghanaian market. It is expected that this arrangement, when successful, coupled with a stable currency will halt the escalation of fuel prices and bring relief to us all.
I hear from the market queens also that another factor fueling the high prices is the high margins that some traders are slapping on goods, for fear of future higher costs. I say to our traders, we are all in this together. Please let us be measured in the margins we seek. I have great respect and admiration for the ingenuity and hard work of our traders, especially those that take on the distribution of foodstuffs around the country, and I would hesitate to join in calling them names. I do make a heartfelt appeal that we all keep an eye out for the greater good, and not try to make the utmost profits out of the current difficulties.
In language that every market woman and, indeed, every trader in our country understands, let me say that the basic problem we face is that we are not making as much money as we need to spend, and what little money we do make is going to pay for the debts we have contracted to fund the development projects we must have. Not enough of us are paying our taxes, not enough of us are producing to generate the revenues that we need.
Nevertheless, my ambitions for Ghana remain high. All our children should be educated and trained with skills that will enable us be competitive in the world. We need to close rapidly the infrastructure gap, we need to build a world-class healthcare system, and we need to build confidence in ourselves to make ours the happy and prosperous place it deserves to be.
I believe we can and we will find the means to achieve these goals, even if the immediate measures we have to take are painful.
At the just-ended Cabinet Retreat at Peduase Lodge, my government agreed on the framework for the Post COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth and the IMF support for its implementation, as well as the work being done by the Ministry of Finance in preparation for the 2023 budget. At the Cabinet Retreat, we took some firm decisions that should put us on the path that will take our nation out of the current economic difficulties. Let me try and give you an outline of the main decisions without getting into the technical language that baffles many of us.
To restore and sustain debt sustainability, we plan to reduce our total public debt to GDP ratio to some fifty-five percent (55%) in present value terms by 2028, with the servicing of our external debt pegged at not more than eighteen percent (18%) of our annual revenue also by 2028.
We are committed to improving the revenue collection effort, from the current tax-revenue to GDP ratio of thirteen (13%) to between eighteen and twenty percent (18-20%), to be competitive with our peers in the West Africa Region. The GRA is rolling out an extensive set of measures to support this enhanced revenue mobilisation. All of us must do our patriotic duty, and support the GRA in this exercise.
We are aiming to restore and sustain macroeconomic stability within the next three (3) to six (6) years, with a focus on ensuring debt sustainability to promote durable and inclusive growth while protecting the poor.
We have decided to review the reforms in the energy sector, capping of statutory funds, implementation of the exemptions Act and a new property rate regime. We have decided also to continue with the policy of thirty percent (30%) cut in the salaries of political office holders including the President, Vice President, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, MMDCEs, and SOE appointees in 2023, just as we will continue with the thirty percent (30%) cut in discretionary expenditures of Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
My fellow Ghanaians, the success of our efforts at diversifying the structure of the Ghanaian economy from an import-based one to a value-added exporting one is what will, in the long term, help strengthen our economy. We are making some progress with the 1D1F but our current situation requires that we take some more stringent measures to discourage the importation of goods that we can and do produce here.
To this end, we will review the standards required for imports into the country, prioritise the imports, as well as review the management of our foreign exchange reserves, in relation to imports of products such as rice, poultry, vegetable oil, tooth picks, pasta, fruit juice, bottled water and ceramic tiles, and others which, with intensified government support and that of the banking sector, can be manufactured and produced in sufficient quantities in Ghana. Government will, in May 2023, that is six (6) months from now, review the situation. We must, as a matter of urgent national security, reduce our dependence on imported goods, and enhance our self-reliance, as demanded by our overarching goal of creating a Ghana Beyond Aid.
Much as we believe in free trade, we must work to ensure that the majority of goods in our shops and market places are those we produce and grow here in Ghana. That is why we have to support our farmers and domestic industries, including those created under the 1-District-1-Factory initiative, to help reduce our dependence on imports, and allow us the opportunity to export more and more of our products, and guarantee a stable currency that will present a high level of predictability for citizens and the business community. Exports, not imports, must be our mantra! Accra, after all, hosts the headquarters of the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Fellow Ghanaians, as the French would say, l’argent n’aime pas le bruit, to wit, money does not like noise, sika mpɛ dede. Where there is chaos, where there is noise, where there is unrest, you will not find money. If you talk down your money, it will go down. If you allow some unidentifiable person to talk down your money, it will go down.
The recent turbulence on the financial markets was caused by low inflows of foreign exchange, and was made worse in the last two to three weeks, in particular, by the activities of speculators and the Black Market. An anonymous two-minute audio message on a WhatsApp platform predicting a so-called haircut on Government bonds sent all of us into banks and forex bureaus to dump our cedis, and, before we knew it, the cedi had depreciated further. All of us can play a part in helping to strengthen the cedi by having confidence in the currency, and avoiding speculation. Let us keep our cedi as the good store of value it is. To those who make it a habit of publishing falsehoods, which result in panic in the system, I say to them that the relevant state agencies will act against such persons.
Indeed, some steps have been taken to restore order in the forex markets and we are already beginning to see some calm returning. We will not relent until order is completely restored. The following actions have been taken thus far:
Enhanced supervisory action by the Bank of Ghana in the forex bureau markets and the black market to flush out illegal operators, as well as ensuring that those permitted to operate legally abide by the market rules. Already some forex bureaus have had their licenses revoked, and this exercise will continue until complete order is restored in the sector;
Fresh inflows of dollars are providing liquidity to the foreign exchange market, and addressing the pipeline demand;
the Bank of Ghana has given its full commitment to the commercial banks to provide liquidity to ensure the wheels of the economy continue to run in a stabilized manner, till the IMF Programme kicks in and the financing assurances expected from other partners also come in;
Government is working with the Bank of Ghana and the oil producing and mining companies to introduce a new legal and regulatory framework to ensure that all foreign exchange earned from operations in Ghana are, initially, paid to banks domiciled in Ghana to help boost the domestic foreign exchange market; and the Bank of Ghana will enhance its gold purchase programme.
I am confident that these immediate measures designed to change the structure of our balance of payment flows, sanitise the foreign exchange market to ensure that the banks and forex bureaus operate along international best practices, together with strengthened supervision, will go a long way to sanitize our foreign exchange market, and make it more resilient against external vulnerabilities going forward.
Over the course of this week, I have held several fruitful engagements with the Trades Union Congress and Organised Labour, the Ghana Employers’ Association, the Association of Ghana Industries, the Ghana Association of Banks, the Private Enterprise Federation, the Association of Forex Bureau Operators, the Association of Market Queens and Women, all of whom represent important stakeholders of the Ghanaian economy. They expressed their concerns and proposed solutions on how best to solve our problems. I have been encouraged by the enthusiasm of these interest groups to help Government address these challenges, and I intend to continue these engagements with other groups.
I also want to assure all Ghanaians that no individual or institutional investor, including pension funds, in Government treasury bills or instruments will lose their money, as a result of our ongoing IMF negotiations. There will be no “haircuts”, so I urge all of you to ignore the false rumours, just as, in the banking sector clean-up, Government ensured that the 4.6 million depositors affected by the exercise did not lose their deposits.
Anuanom, menim sɛɛ asetenamu ayɛ din. Nanso, ma obiaa empa aba, monkͻso enya gyidie ɛwͻ mabam mu. Nhyehyɛ yɛ aa ɛtumi maa Free SHS ɛni 1-District-1-Factory ɛbaa mu nu; nhyehyɛ yɛ aa ɛboaa ma yetumi pam corona yariɛ no efri oman ni mu; saa ɛnso na maban ɛ toto niemayie saa mereyi ama ahotͻ aba oman nimu, efri sɛɛ mewͻ gydie sɛɛ ɛko no yɛ Awurade Nyankopͻn ni ko.
Anyɛmimɛi, mile akɛ nibii ewa, shi nyɛ ka shia gbeye. Nyɛ yaanͻ ni nyɛ naa hemͻ kɛ yeli akɛ gbɛjianͻto ni hani free SHS ba min, gbɛjia nͻto ni hani 1-District-1-Factory ba min, gbɛjianͻto ni hani wͻ nyɛ wͻ shwe Corona hela kɛshi wͻ man nɛ min; nakai nͻͻ ni mi amlalo ba to gbɛjianͻ koni hejͻlɛ aba maa min, ejaakɛ, miyɛ hemͻ kɛ yeli ak3, ta, Nyͻnmͻ ta lɛ ni.
My government has always been cognisant of the importance of implementing policies and social interventions to relieve Ghanaians of hardships. It is for this reason that over the first five (5) years in office government reduced electricity tariffs cumulatively by 10.9%, we provided free water and electricity as well as reduced tariffs for the entire population during a whole year of the COVID-19 pandemic; we increased the share of the District Assemblies Common Fund to persons with disabilities by 50%; we exempted Kayayei from market tolls; we expanded the LEAP by one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) beneficiaries; we expanded School Feeding from 1.6 million children to 2.1 million children; we restored teacher and nursing training allowances; we absorbed the cost of BECE and WASSCE exam registrations for parents; no guarantor is now required to obtain student loans. The Ghanacard is sufficient; and we have implemented free TVET as well as free senior high school education.
It is obvious, fellow Ghanaians, that you have a government that cares. We are determined to restore stability to the economy, and provide relief. We are all in this together, and I am asking for your support to rescue Ghana from the throes of this economic crisis.
I have total confidence in our ability to work our way out of our current difficulties. We are not afraid of hard work. We will triumph, as we have triumphed many times before. Let us unite, and rally around our Republic, its institutions and its democratic values, and insist that, under God, we will emerge victorious from our current difficulties. For this too shall pass, as the Battle is the Lord’s.
I will be coming regularly to keep you updated about the measures your government is making to move our country forward, and tackle our economic challenges.
God bless us all and our homeland Ghana, and make her great and strong.
I thank you for your attention, and have a good evening.
Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Suame MP and Majority Leader, has explained portions of a statement he signed, in which President Akufo-Addo pleaded with some Majority MPs to allow Ken Ofori-Atta conclude Ghana’s negotiations with the IMF and present the 2023 budget. The appeal came after the majority MPs organised a press conference to demand the finance minister’s removal from office.
According to the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, the president when he met the Majority MPs did not categorically say he will dismiss Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, and Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Charles Adu Boahen, after the IMF negotiations and 2023 Budget reading and appropriation.
He explained in a Joy News interview monitored by GhanaWeb that, “the President did not say that. To quote his words, he said ‘let’s finish with this, the IMF and the budget thereafter, we should hold on until after these’.”
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu continued that the president’s statement could result in an ‘either or’ decision.
“It could be. I mean, either of them is subject to interpretations that ‘okay hold on after the events then we come back and discuss,’ or ‘hold on after the event I will act.’
“’I will act’ may not necessarily mean that ‘I will do that’. According to what the President told us, you hold on until…so it could be that ‘I’ll come back to consider it’ or ‘I’ll give in to your demands’.
“The plea was – hold on until after these events, the IMF discussions and the budget. In fact, I even added when there appeared to be some unclarity about what happens after the presentation of the budget, I said no if the budget is presented by a person, you’d require that same person to shepherd the appropriations.
“And that is how come for the avoidance of doubt I said let us include the appropriation so that there’s no doubt in anybody’s mind that after the budget has been read then agitations will start again,” Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu noted.
About 95 NPP MPs demanded the immediate dismissal of the Finance Minister.
The MPs at a press conference stated that the continuous stay of Ken Ofori-Atta in office was delaying the IMF bailout the country is seeking due to the fact that the Minister has lost all credibility.
They demanded the President to either remove him or face a boycott of his business in Parliament.
The President, however, appealed to them for more time for the embattled Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to conclude negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before any talks of resignation.
Petroleum consumershave lamented the rising prices of fuel in the country. Petrol and diesel are currently being sold at an average of ¢18 and ¢23 per litre, from the previous prices of ¢15 and ¢19 per litre respectively.
Already, some leading Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have adjusted the prices of petroleum products at their pumps.
They attribute the significant increase in the price of fuel to the sharp depreciation of the cedi over the past two weeks.
This, according to the petroleum consumers, has made the plight of the average Ghanaian worse.
Petroleum consumers have called for urgent steps to stem the hike in the price of the product believed to be the cause of the current high cost of living.
“If I fill first it was ¢350 but right now almost ¢600 if I fill this car. I do not make money. Sometimes you will drive all day and even fuel money you will not get, but we are hoping and praying to God that things can turn around for us,” one consumer lamented.
“We are feeling it and the rate at which it is increasing is our problem. Formally it increases in bits so maybe two to three weeks you will know how to manage and get to level. Now the rate at which it is increasing is too much, ” another consumer said.
“Prices of goods and services have increased. Now the situation is getting worse, so government should take steps to solve this.”
This latest increment comes barely 48 hours after President Akufo-Addo announced plans to import cheaper fuel. The latest adjustment however continues to bite hard.
Meanwhile, the Oil Marketing companies have justified the new prices of petroleum products.
They say the new prices are a reflection of the depreciation of the cedi and prices on the international market.
“In President Kufuor’s time, we did it with Nigeria, Sahara lifting for us and you could have supply credit lines and a fixed price that you could bank on and it is a very similar arrangement that has already commenced and I am expecting that in the coming weeks the NPA, the Energy Ministry will have the opportunity to provide the details,” he said on PM Express, Monday.
Information available to JoyNews indicates that a government delegation is in Abu Dhabi negotiating a deal to bring petroleum products onto the Ghanaian market.
JoyNews understands that they have been scheduled to meet the Chief Executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Sultan Al Jaber on Friday, November 4 to see how possible government can secure a cheaper fuel for the Ghanaian market.
The final details of this meeting are expected to be known after the meeting on Friday, November 4.
It could be recalled that President Akufo-Addoin his broadcast to the nation last Sunday evening, revealed that his government is working to stabilise prices of petroleum products through new supply arrangements in a bid to tackle the high cost of living.
The Information Minister in an interview on PM Express on Monday said government has commenced plans to secure cheaper petroleum products onto the Ghanaian market.
According to him, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the Ministry of Energy will provide further details about the importation of fuel onto the Ghanaian market in the coming days.
He noted that the Energy Ministry had already begun talks with some major sources and sovereigns in the supply of petroleum products.
“In President Kufuor’s time, we did it with Nigeria, Sahara lifting for us and you could have supply credit lines and a fixed price that you could bank on and it is a very similar arrangement that has already commenced and I am expecting that in the coming weeks the NPA, the Energy Ministry will have the opportunity to provide the details,” he said.
He claims that despite the Central Bank’s quotes of lower interbank rates, the business community finds it difficult to obtain dollars at such prices because of the lack of supply.
Speaking on President Akufo-Addo’s initiatives to stop the cedi’s depreciation and put the economy back on track, Mr. Adongo claimed that the dollar is actually in the hands of undercover traders known as “Abochis.”
“You have over 70 billion that do not belong to the economy chasing the dollar. So the dollar will definitely collapse the cedi and that is caused by the Bank of Ghana.
“When you do that then you need to mop up the excess liquidity. You need to find a way to get that money back to the banking sector and probably back to the Bank of Ghana. In doing so you must continue increasing the policy rate and the policy rate has been increased over the period,” Mr. Adongo stated on Morning Starr with Francis Abban Monday.
“Because he must be able to find a business that gives him 35% of return or margin in order to pay the interest and have something to survive on. The government will have to pay a very huge sum of money to borrow, so the government is now borrowing at 33% for 90 days.
“The end result is that the government doesn’t even have the revenue to service this 33% and it’s back in circles. So the Bank of Ghana having thrown money into the economy to chase the dollar and trying to bring those monies back into the economy is now creating difficulty for the businessman.
“If the Bank of Ghana says the rate is 12% or one percent, do you have the dollar to give at that rate, no, you don’t have. Abochi has the dollar and he says it’s Ghc20. So the Bank of Ghana only has a paper to announce the rate but the Abochi has the dollars and this is where we are,” Mr. Adongo stated.
A two-minute video that went viral on social media and implied that there would be a “haircut on Government bonds” prompted a response from President Akufo-Addo.
Speaking to the country about the steps the government is taking to revive the economy, he added: “I also want to reassure all Ghanaians that no individual or institutional investor—including pension funds—in Government treasury bills or instruments will lose their money as a result of our on-going IMF negotiations.
“There will be no “haircuts”, so I urge all of you to ignore the false rumours, just as, in the banking sector clean-up, Government ensured that the 4.6 million depositors affected by the exercise did not lose their deposits”
According to Mr. John Abdulai Jinapor, a member of the minority caucus in the Ghanaian parliament and the member for the Northern Region’s Yapei Kusawgu constituency, fuel prices increased by over 200 percent (200%) between January 1 and November 1, 2022.
He maintains that there is no explanation for the enormous increase that Ghanaians are seeing at the various gas stations.
On the GTV Breakfast Show, he made this comment during a segment titled “Minority’s Take on President Akufo Addo’s -Nationally Televised Address on Sunday, October 30, 2022.”
Mr. John Jinapor explained that crude prices on the international market have been stable for some time, however, due to the free fall of the Cedi, fuel prices keep going up every minute.
“So to have a 200% increment in fuel prices within 10 months is unprecedented and unacceptable. Increments in fuel products have a cascading effect on everything” he added.
The Yapei Kusawgu lawmaker, stated that everybody in Ghana today, knows that there are real economic issues.
