Don't call a spade a digging tool – Sammy Gyamfi tells Kwaku Kwarteng over Ponzi scheme remark

Kwaku Kwarteng, the Member of Parliament for Obuasi West has likened the management of Ghana’s economy to a Ponzi scheme, a comparison he believes applies to successive administrations.

In an epistle titled "To break the eight, we must first break the norm," he challenged his own New Patriotic Party (NPP) to address critical issues if they hope to break the country's traditional eight-year electoral cycle.

Kwarteng's remarks have been met with both praise and criticism. While some commend his candidness, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has voiced objections.

Sammy Gyamfi, the NDC's Communications Officer, refuted the Ponzi scheme characterization, arguing that Ghana's economic challenges are rooted in decades of poor governance, rather than a specific financial model.

In an interview on Joy FM on July 29, 2024, Gyamfi emphasized that such an analogy unfairly generalizes past and present administrations.

He pointed to economic metrics during former President John Mahama's tenure, such as a 6.1% budget deficit and a 56% debt-to-GDP ratio, as evidence of responsible fiscal management.

These figures, Gyamfi argues, stand in contrast to the NPP’s record, citing a 7.1% budget deficit in 2018 and a 7.5% deficit in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"You cannot say all governments are the same. Let’s call a spade a spade, not a digging tool. If your government has been reckless, you have to call them out. Don’t try to generalize and think all of us are the same,” myjoyonline.com quoted him to have said.

He reiterated the NDC's longstanding stance that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led administration has engaged in reckless spending, resulting in excessive borrowing and subsequent economic instability.

“That is the argument we in the NDC have been making for a long time, that this Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-NPP government must learn to live within its means. The reckless expenditure, which led to excessive borrowing since 2017, was going to crash our economy. We sounded the alarm bells, and advised the government, but they refused to listen, and that is why today, we find our economy in a mess,” Gyamfi elaborated.

AM/EK

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