Economic crunch: Russia-Ukraine blame ‘hogwash’ – Afriyie Ankrah

The opposition NDC's general secretary aspirant Elvis Afriyie Ankrah has called the constant blame for Ghana's collapsing economy on the war between Russia and Ukraine "hogwash."

According to him, Ghana’s economy started collapsing before the war in Russia-Ukraine started, so it is not right for anybody to use that as an excuse to tell Ghanaians that things were going well but the war brought about hardships.

He said Ghana’s economy should have turned around when it received money from the World Bank and IMF during the pandemic, but those handling the affairs decided to share the money among themselves.

Afriyie Ankrah, speaking on GhanaWeb’s Election Desk programme with Edward-Smith Anamale, noted that the over 23 billion that came into the country was used to buy the 2020 general elections to make sure that the NPP remains in power.

"When we had the energy crisis, was it not due to exogenous factors? Is John Mahama the one to rain into the Akosombo dam?... Was there Russia-Ukraine when this government realised that the cedi was collapsing, set up an economic advisory something with 30 people including Franklin Cudjoe and co…?" he questioned.

"So, the cedi started performing badly long before Russia-Ukraine. Now, look at the Auditor-General’s report, look at the infractions; at the time we were leaving office in 2016, the cumulative infractions for that year was about 957 million cedis – which for us was horrible – from that time [till now] what are the infractions according to Auditor-General’s report; was it Russia-Ukraine?

"Was it Russia-Ukraine that caused us to have these infractions? Was it Russia-Ukraine that came and made Ken Ofori-Atta that any time we go for Eurobond he…benefits from those transactions such that he goes to the Euro market with that thinking because his company benefits?

"This is complete hogwash. These Russia-Ukraine here and there is complete hogwash. Before Russia-Ukraine came, all the fundamentals started going down." Elvis Afriyie Ankrah told Edward Smith Anamale.

He continued: "Indeed, the World Bank and IMF warned us that the way we were going about collecting loans was unsustainable and we will get here. Was it Russia-Ukraine that caused us to go and borrow 13 billion cedis… in any case, Ghana benefited from COVID-19…cumulatively over 23 billion came into this economy that should have been a turnaround for this economy.

"You know what they did, they chopped the money; they shared the money…the real root of the problem is that in 2020 these people poured the money and bought the election."

Elvis Afriyie Ankrah alleged that the Akufo-Addo-led government wanted to win the election at all costs, therefore, they had to be paying people so that they win the elections.

"They paid people, they spent the money; that is the issue that we must face and confront and stop talking about Russia-Ukraine," he said.

Watch the full interview below:





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