‘NPP Riding on NDC Solid Economic Foundation’ – Kwakye Ofosu

The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), should be grateful to the Mahama administration for the role they played in laying a solid foundation which the Akufo-Addo government is riding on.

Former Deputy Information Minister, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, insists that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) did not hand over a messed-up economy to the NPP as has been suggested.

In an interview with citinewsroom he said: “From the evidence of what we have seen, it does not appear that the NPP has any magic wand to turn things around. Contrary to their claim that they inherited a mess or the current poor performance is on account of what they inherited, I will argue that it was the foundation that was laid by the NDC government that has resulted in the attainment of some of the figures they are throwing about.”

Kwakye Ofosu argued that some of the sacrifices the NDC made in the oil sector bringing on-board the TEN and Sankofa fields among others accounted for the country’s growth rate the NPP is bragging with.

“For instance, the contribution of oil accounted for the current growth rate…because of additional oil production from the TEN and Sankofa fields, and these are fields worked on by the John Mahama administration. So on what basis do they seek to create the impression that they came to meet some terrible condition which is accounting for their poor performance,” he added.

S&P rating

Ghana’s credit rating has been upgraded from B- to B by international rating agency, Standard and Poor’s.

Government welcomed the rating and attributed it to its improved fundamentals and fiscal discipline.

The Minister of Information designate, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday said the rating “is an affirmation of what we have been talking about and our desire is to keep working at it to a point where we even see a further upgrade and most importantly a translation of that to meet the aspirations of a majority of our people.”

“The things that we would, maybe at home, call fundamentals… has significantly improved, particularly on the monetary and macro side and they are therefore of the view that if anybody is looking for a strong investment destination that is stable and is able to yield very strong ground and good returns, Ghana is that viable location.”

S&P’s B rating doesn’t change hardship in Ghana – Kwakye Ofosu

But Kwakye Ofosu said the upgrade has no bearing on the lives of Ghanaians who are enduring various forms of hardships under the 20-months-old Akufo-Addo presidency.

He said the rating does not comfort Ghanaians in any way, and thus charged government to put measures in place to turn things around as promised prior to the 2016 general elections.

“The Standard & Poor’s rating comes as cold comfort for Ghanaians who are reeling under severe economic hardships at a time where the cedi has taken a very steep nose dive and is depreciating at an alarming rate against the US dollar. The last thing on the minds of Ghanaians is our ratings,” he added in the interview with citinewsroom.com.

He also took on the Vice President, ,Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who doubles as the head of the economic management team, for not being able to save the cedi against major trading currencies especially the dollar.

“In any event, when they were campaigning in 2016 and taking all the extravagant promises that they made, are they saying that they were unaware of the state of the economy? What was the basis of all the lectures that Dr. Bawumia was holding and criticizing the performance of the economy and claiming that we were unable to manage it? The truth is that they have been exposed and the things that they said in opposition have been found out to be mere rhetoric and empty propaganda. The reality is staring them in the face,” he added.

Source: citinewsroom