It is time to support gov’t —Razak Opoku

Mr Kojo Razak Opoku, Member of the New Patriotic Party has called on Ghanaians to back the policies of the government to be able to withstand world economic crisis in the country.

He said under the current global economic crisis, the only time to rally support for the government is now to recover.

“Through Akufo-Addo’s E-levy policy, Ghana would be generating an estimated amount of US$10billion in 10 years which far exceeds the US$6.5billion Ghana earned from the Oil resource in the last 10 years between 2011-2022.”

Mr Opoku who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency on the current global economic crisis, resulting from the COVID-19 Pandemic and now Russia-Ukraine crisis said prior to the 2016 elections, the then-candidate Akufo-Addo made a popular statement that “Yete Sika So Nanso Ekom De Yen” to describe the state of the Ghanaian economy under the leadership of John Mahama.

That statement he said was still valid today saying the greatest attributes of a good leader is the identification of sustainable financial resources anchored on a homegrown policy for national socio-economic development, exactly what President Akufo-Addo in his 2022 Budget presented to Parliament for approval.

‘President Akufo-Addo has shown the Country where the ‘sika’ is through the E-levy policy but due to some circumstances now, we are unable to utilise the vast financial resources in the Mobile Money industry.

He alleged that some Minority Members of Parliament were deliberately sabotaging Government’s business in Parliament as well as the E-levy due to the recent Supreme Court Ruling in favour of the voting rights of Deputy Speakers.

“One thing we need to understand is that, apart from Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) which has the capacity to generate 70-80 billion Ghana Cedis for the Country through VAT, NHIL, COVID-19 HRL, Corporate taxes, income taxes etc., which government agencies, institutions or natural resources are able to generate US$1 billion dollars annually for the Country? As it stands now certainly none.”

He said the report of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee(PIAC) stated that Ghana earned US$6.5billion out of the total US$31billion generated from the three oil-producing fields in 10 years.

Also as a reminder, he said Ghana secured US$1 billion three-year IMF loan programme in a bid to revive the economy under former President John Mahama, yet the economy woefully failed to be revived.

However, he said President Akufo-Addo, true to his statement that ‘Yete Sika So Nanso Ekom De Yen’ had shown where the money is and equally provided an alternative homegrown policy that was sustainable in nature to help the country generate US$1 billion annually to support the economy through E-levy.

Mr Opoku said records from the Bank of Ghana said, Mobile Money transactions grew by 13 per cent to GHC76.2billion in January 2022, GHC67. 9 billion in January 2021, GHC82.9billion is December 2021.

“The registered Mobile Money Accounts stood at 48.4 million in January 2022 and, Mobile Money remained the biggest payment solution platform in Ghana with an estimated GHC905.1billion transactions recorded in 2021.

“The value of mobile money transactions in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December 2021 were estimated at GHC67.1billion, GHS 67.9billion, GHC82.3 billion, GHC83.8 billion, GHC86.5 billion, GHC89.1 billion, GHC99.1 billion, GHC81. 8 billion, GHC71 billion, GHC80 billion, GHC86.1 billion and GHC82.9 billion respectively.”

He said the government got peanuts from the quantum of monies derived from the Mobile Money transactions, while the majority of the monies are retained by the Telecommunications Companies and interestingly the companies were foreign entities that transferred their profits from the Mobile Money transactions to their respective home Countries through conversion of our Cedi into dollars and as a result causing capital flight which automatically affected the depreciation of the Cedi”

Mr Opoku said the revenue target of the Ghana Revenue Authority(GRA) for the 2022 was GHC80.3 billion, far below the Mobile Money transactions for the months of March, April, May, June, July, August, October, November and December 2021 respectively.

He said President Akufo-Addo would forever be remembered by posterity for showing Ghana where the money is that we are sitting on and still struggling to feed our Ghanaian people largely due to the unpatriotic and unpleasant behaviour of some Ghanaians undermining the E-levy policy.

“The E-Levy has directed us to the answer of ‘Yete Sika So Nanso Ekom De Yen’, and clearly, the E-levy is the best alternative homegrown policy to the usual borrowing, peanuts from our natural resources and Donor support or loan from IMF/World Bank.” – GNA