Bawumia is a textbook economist – Ricketts-Hagan

Former deputy minister of finance under the erstwhile Mahama administration and now aspiring flagbearer of the NDC, Kweku Ricketts-Hagan has described Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as a “textbook economist”.

The MP for cape coast south in the central region said Dr Bawumia’s knowledge of economic management is weak.

Dr Bawumia’s in recent times has been criticized for the fast depreciation of the Cedi against the US dollar.

Speaking to Bonohene Baffour Awuah on Agoo TV, Ricketts-Hagan said Dr Bawumia started as a lecturer and then moved to the Bank of Ghana where he did more of administrative work, supervising activities of the central bank, so he did not gain the experience of a practitioner; which makes whatever he says based on the textbooks.

“We don’t have good leaders of the economy. Our economic management team is weak. Bawumia did so much talking but has done very little because he is a textbook economist,” he said

He also criticized the NPP government’s management of the banking crisis specifically on the merger of some five indigenous banks into one.

“When you collapse the banks, you kill businesses because entrepreneurs take loans from these banks. You also increase the unemployment rate because the closed banks will lay off its workers which means the collapse of the banks would do more harm than good,” he said.