Ghana Beyond Aid: Amissah-Arthur’s Critique ‘Dishonest’ – Casely-Hayford

Financial Analyst, Sydney Casely Hayford has strongly criticized former Vice President, Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur for describing government’s ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda as a mere rhetoric.

The former Vice President had indicated that government’s Ghana Beyond Aid mantra raises questions about what it wants to specifically achieve, given that adequate information had not yet been provided.

“I’m comfortable if ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ is saying we will only borrow for capital investment and not the current obligation. But the problem has not been defined for me to understand it. It is just the rhetoric. It sounds nice, but what goes into it? People will support it, if they understand what the objective is. As at now, everybody is left to define it how he understands it, and then to decide to support it or to oppose it,” Mr. Amissah Arthur had suggested.

Casely Hayford on Citi FM’s News Analysis Programme, The Big Issue, however, rubbished Amissah Arthur’s suggestions, saying he was only being disingenuous.

He questioned why Amissah Arthur had suddenly become a vocal critic of the NPP government when his party could not implement viable policies despite being in power for 8 years.

“It is very disingenuous for Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur after having been a Deputy Minister of Finance, a governor of the Bank of Ghana and a Vice President of a country in charge of Economic Affairs to come and say he does not understand what the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda means,” he said.

‘Amissah Arthur was fair’

President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe in a rebuttal, however, disagreed with Casely Hayford’s stance, saying the Vice President was only seeking clarity when he questioned what the mantra stood for.

He believes Amissah Arthur’s comments were “very fair.”

‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda 

President Akufo-Addo, since assuming office, has reiterated his resolve to grow the country’s economy from one of dependence on foreign aid to independence, and ensuring its development using local resources.

Nana Akufo-Addo, who has on various national and international platforms emphasized his belief that Ghana, like many other African countries, is endowed with enormous resources to guarantee its growth, recently caught global attention when he made a strong case for his position at an event which had French President Emmanuel Macron as a guest.

The Vice President, Dr. Bawumia, who is the head of the country’s economic management team, has been tasked with the responsibility of ensuring all key government projects aimed at making the concept of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ a reality, but his predecessor, believes the government has not done enough to show it is serious about the concept.

Amissah Arthur insists that the government must provide timelines for the achievement of the policy to make it measurable.

“It is good to have a policy, but you must also have a time-frame. That after 10 years, even if someone offers to pay for AIDS medicine, because we don’t have money, we will reject it because we have to pay on our own,” he said.

Source: Citifmonline