FLASHBACK: Ofori-Atta is Ghana's worst finance minister - Kwame Pianim suggests

Renowned New Patriotic Party (NPP) figure Kwame Pianim in 2023 suggested that Ken Ofori-Atta is Ghana's worst finance minister, asserting that Ofori-Atta's tenure saw the country default on debt payments.

Pianim, speaking on Okay FM, criticized Ofori-Atta for not heeding warnings about excessive borrowing and blamed him for the current economic challenges.

On February 14, 2024, President Akufo-Addo finally relieved Ken Ofori-Atta of his post as finance minister. Ofori-Atta had been in the role since 2017, and despite earlier calls for his dismissal, it was not until February 14, 2024, that the decision to remove him from office was executed.

Below is the story as published by GhanaWeb on February 17, 2023.

A New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwart and statesman, Kwame Pianim, has suggested that Ken Ofori-Atta is the worst Minister of Finance Ghana has ever had.

Speaking in an interview on Okay FM on Monday, January 16, 2023, which was monitored by GhanaWeb, Pianim said that it is only under the leadership of Ofori-Atta, as finance minister, that Ghana has defaulted in the payment of its debts.

He added that Ofori-Atta is solely responsible for the economic mess the country finds itself in because he failed to listen to advice.

“This past December, we told the whole world that we can’t pay our debts. In the first few years of Nana Ofori-Atta, we warned him of the rate at which he was borrowing but he did not listen, saying that he knew what he was doing. We told him that he is going to lead the country into a ditch, and now we are in it.

“We are now trying to get the country out of the ditch, and he is saying it is God’s doing… the country has always run at a loss in budgets he (Ofori-Atta) has prepared. He said he will use the E-Levy to resolve the country’s challenges, it was given to him, and nothing happened,” he said in Twi.

Asked whether Ofori-Atta is the worst finance minister Ghana has ever had, he said, “Am I the one you are asking?"

“We have been declared bankrupt; Ghanaians are suffering; pensioners are crying because of the haircuts they are receiving. Some of them are saying this is more than a death sentence and they will die if they don’t take blood pressure medications,” he said.

He added that Ghana’s economy is so broken that it imports cassava from Côte d'Ivoire and vegetables like onions and tomatoes from Burkina Faso.

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