NPP best managers of Ghana’s economy – says Yaw Buabeng Asamoa

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Government has demonstrated with verifiable evidence that it is a far better manager of Ghana’s economy than the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in government.

Mr. Asamoa said the first time the NPP took over government under the 4^th Republic, President John Kufuor  inherited a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) economy from the President Rawlings led NDC.

But when President Kufuor was leaving office, the NPP government handed over a Ghana that was a lower middle income, oil producing economy to a the  NDC Government of Professor Mills.

Again, when the NPP returned to power with Nana Addo as President, the country’s economy was nothing worth writing home about when the then President John Mahama led government had dropped the country’s growth from 14% to under 3%.

“The successor Nana Addo led NPP Government had to battle debt, dumsor and a debilitating financial sector crisis to bring the economy back to growth beyond 6% only for COVID-19 to hit us harder than anything before.

“Regarded as a credible and neutral assessor, the most recent Article IV consultation held by the IMF from end April to early May 2021, demonstrates how well the Government and people of Ghana have fared in a pandemic that continues to devastate not only health, but social and economic lives worldwide. Indeed, as we share this moment, some countries are going back into lockdown”,  Buabeng Asamoa noted as a news conference from the NPP headquarters in Accra on Tuesday.

He continued: “The IMF says Ghana has managed COVID-19 effectively and saved precious lives. Moreover, strong policy actions are driving GDP towards a remarkable projected 4.8%, having dropped to 0.4% in 2020 from a high of 6% in 2019.

“The IMF report puts debt to GDP at 78%, up from 64.4% in 2019. Furthermore, the carefully crafted Ghana CARES Obantapa programme, comes in for high praise, focusing on SMEs and digitisation, which are potential major drivers of employment and incomes.

“Naturally, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), jumped on the 78% debt to GDP ratio, citing the 76.1% quoted in the 2021 budget (paragraph 149). Yet, it is clear that in the circumstances pre-COVID and now, the NPP has managed on all fronts much better than the NDC”, Mr. Asamoa added.

The NPP Communications Director argued that continuity is a vital to have a continuity of government when it is clear that one party is doing well for the country and the other is just drawing the country back.

“So it is important to continue credible policies by changing the leader and retaining the party providing good governance under fresh leadership. That way, we avoid the ‘fix it’ search for instant results and opt for a sustained policy and leadership approach to development. Many sophisticated electoral democracies have multiple political parties and groupings but tend to maintain a particular one in authority for the benefits of policy consistency and continuity.

“The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan has been in power since 1955 bar a few years. The CDU has had the lion’s share of governing Germany since 1945. The Liberal Party of Canada is no different.

“In all of the cited instances, leadership of the parties change but the parties remain in charge, reviewing policy. Thus the continuity of parties in power appears to be function of the effectiveness of their successive leaderships”, he added.