'Mahama has destroyed economy'

President John Mahama has destroyed Ghana’s economy, former Finance Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo has said.

Responding to Mr Mahama’s comments on Thursday that he has concentrated on fixing Ghana’s economic and social infrastructure in his first term, with a promise to filling the pockets of Ghanaians with money in his second term, Mr Osafo Marfo said there was nothing to show for the infrastructural development the president talked about.

He said while the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has been destroyed under Mr Mahama, a comparative analysis of road infrastructure built under former Presidents Rawlings and Kufuor, vis-à-vis those built under President Mahama does not support the president’s claim of infrastructural development.

“You can’t just sit and say: ‘I’m building the social infrastructure.’ Based on which facts?” he asked.

Mr Osafo Marfo said for Mr Mahama to have saddled the economy and Ghanaians with a GHS99 billion debt when he met a debt of GHS9.2 billion is enough proof that he is destroying the economy. “There must be a lot to show for it, and what is it? Where is it?” he wondered.

“When you meet inflation of about 17% and you keep it there, when you meet a cedi to a dollar rate of GHS1.1 to 1$ and now you are talking about GHS4 cedis to a dollar, are you not destroying the economy? The economy is in difficulty and we should get it with facts and not fiction,” Mr Osafo Marfo told journalists on the sidelines of a book launch.