Ghana has managed crisis better than Nigeria, Sri Lanka, others – Salam Mustapha

National Youth Organizer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Salam Mustapha says Ghana has done better in managing the debilitating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia – Ukraine war than many other countries.

Speaking in an interview on Dreamz FM on Sunday monitored by MyNewsGh.com, Mustapha stated that the government in the face of the global crisis efficiently managed the economy and implemented measures that cushion Ghanaians.

“COVID came, the war in Ukraine and Russia disrupting virtually the financial system, food supply chain, oil supply, real difficulties across the entire globe but even that, how we have managed it back home here, has been much better than other countries,” he stated.

He claimed, unlike citizens of other countries who are facing the full blow of the crisis, the impact on Ghanaians has been mitigated due to the sound economic management of the country and its handlers.

Citing the situation in Sri Lanka and instances of fuel shortages in Nigeria, the NPP National Youth Organizer said the country under president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been outstanding in its handling of the global crisis.

“We can do comparative analysis on any day and see how we have fared against other countries. Our big brothers in Nigeria, if we are going to do one-on-one and see how, how we have managed as against Nigeria, you see that we have done far better than Nigeria. Nigeria has more oil than Ghana has but today, Ghana is much more of a stable country with better petroleum products than Nigeria.”

He added, “I can show you videos from Pakistan, people queuing to buy fuel. This is just two weeks ago, a nuclear power in the world, if they drop one nuclear weapon, can decimate the entirety of Ghana. With all the military power that Pakistan has, higher GDP than us, Pakistan is in turmoil. Today, Sri Lanka is a failed state”.

Ghana is currently at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) seeking a bailout after it ran into crisis.

The crisis began in the latter part of 2021 when the country’s currency began to depreciate at alarming rates with its debts reaching unsustainable levels. Inflation reached a 27-year high of 50.3 percent in November 2022 but even surged further to 54.1 percent in December same year.

While the government blamed the crisis on the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020 and the ongoing geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the main opposition and financial experts attributed the situation to reckless borrowing and expenditure by the government.