Our partners ditched us in trying times – Mahama

President John Mahama says Ghana’s development partners have left the cocoa-producing West African country in the lurch, at a time when their assistance is desperately needed.

According to him, the country’s development partners have not been supportive of government’s homegrown strategies in dealing with the economic challenges confronting the burgeoning oil producer.

“It is in challenging times that one needs their friends. Unfortunately, our development partners have not been as responsive to our homegrown fiscal stabilisation policy as I would have hoped,” he stated.

He said government is in the process of finalising the “Senchi Consensus,” which proposes a number of solutions to the current economic crises – poor performing local currency, rising fuel prices, soaring utility tariffs, hikes in taxes, poor power supply among a raft of other problems.

The Senchi Consensus was reached after a non-partisan National Economic Forum some three months ago. Government has been criticised for the delay in implementing the agreement reached at the forum.

Addressing members of the National House of Chiefs on Wednesday July 16, the president said: “This year is a turn-around year."

“We will begin to feel the effects of economic recovery by the end of this year,” he promised, but added: “We however must learn to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. It is in challenging times that one needs their friends.”