State of the Economy: “The economy is what we feel in our pockets” – Dr. Bawumia

Vice President of Ghana addressed the State of The Economy on 7th April, 2022. At the introductory part of his speech at the National Tescon Conference, Millennium City, Kasoa, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia acknowledged the fact that Ghanaians are right when they complain about economic hardship because, “the economy is (actually) what we feel in our pockets“.

Going forward, he blamed the current economic hardship in Ghana to the activities of the previous government and the deadly pandemic that stroke the whole world; Coronavirus. He stated that, before coronavirus, the NPP government led by president Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo was in the process to “stop the decline and make things better” in Ghana. They saved Ghana by ensuring a;

• reduced inflation

• doubled economic growth in our first three years

• reduced the rate of depreciation of the cedi. The average

depreciation for 2017-2020 was the lowest for any first term government since 1992.

• reduced the fiscal deficit

• improved our external payments position

• Reduced interest rates in line with declining inflation expectations

• cleaned up the mess in the financial services sector that we inherited. We took decisive action to avoid the collapse of the financial sector, save the deposits of 4.6 million depositors and save jobs. Thousands of businesses would have collapsed if they had lost their deposits.

• We implemented our flagship programs such as Free SHS, Planting for Food and Jobs, IDIF, NABCO, IPEP, Zongo Development Fund, Restoration of teacher and nursing training allowances and

• We embarked on the digitalization of the economy.

Dr. Bamumia stated that, Ghana actually became “the destination of choice for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in West Africa according to the 2019 World Investment Report by UNCTAD” but coronavirus has caused the hardship we are experiencing now.

He later assured Ghanaians that despite the issue that, “in the first quarter of this year we(Ghana) have also suffered a sovereign credit ratings downgrade by two rating agencies (Fitch and Moodys) and along with that, there has been a significant depreciation of the cedi between February and March of this year”, there is still hope in rising the economy Ghana.