John Boadu
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has asked Ghanaian electorates to make a dispassionate comparison of the economic performances of the two leading political parties using the ratings presented by the various international rating agencies and institutions.
The two leading parties; the NPP and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), are the only political parties that have had the opportunity to govern the country for the past 26 years under the fourth republic.
Mr John Boadu, the General-Secretary of the NPP, addressing a news conference in Accra, on Sunday, to respond to some issues raised during the NDC’s public lecture spearheaded by Mr Isaac Adongo, Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central and some NDC gurus last Thursday.
He said governance was about social inclusion, good governance, creating jobs for the people, ensuring better incomes and housing for workers, as well as consolidating the economic gains made so far, and not resorting to propaganda and deception.
He said the NPP government would continue to implement social interventions that would inure to the benefit of Ghanaians and mentioned the port reforms, Free Senior High School, reduction of the benchmark values of imports, payment of the National Health Insurance subscriptions, capitation grants, among others.
Mr Boadu said after eight years of economic mismanagement by the NDC, which saw weak macroeconomic indicators recording 3.6 per cent economic growth (non-rebased) in 2016 to the gross domestic product, high inflation rate of 15.4 per cent, fiscal deficit of 9. 3 per cent and inflated project cost, coupled with bad policy credibility that necessitated an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout in 2015.
He said the NDC wanted to ride on propaganda, deception and insults to get back to government to rode back the progress and gains made by the ruling NPP-led government and, thus, urged Ghanaians to be alert and cross-check facts, instead of relying on figures that did not have any credible sources.
The NPP General-Secretary was of the conviction that the NDC has discredited record on the management of the economy and they could not pose credible facts to challenge the then NPP government, led by President John Agyekum Kufuor and the current administration of President Akufo-Addo, hence, they resorted to lies and propaganda to throw dust in the eyes of Ghanaians.
More so, he believed that the NDC’s Presidential Candidate, Mr John Mahama, was not a credible alternative to President Akufo-Addo, since, the former had led this nation before and created monumental mess of the economy, which saw an IMF bailout for policy credibility, while the NPP government, cleaning-up the mess created by the previous government. “The alternative is so scary and we pledged not be complacent at all but push harder to deliver and that is exactly what President Nana Akufo-Addo is doing for Ghana,” Mr Boadu pointed out. He said over the years, the economic growth path of the country showed the NPP building a resilient economy only for the NDC to ride back the gains upon assumption of office. He cited the year 2001, which took the boldness and ingenuity of President John Agyekum Kufuor’s administration to sign the nation onto the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) status, resulting in the cancellation of the bulk of the country’s debts.
Additionally, Ghana’s economy witnessed a B+ rating in 2008 by renowned international financial institution for the first time. However, after eight years of the NDC government from 2009 to 2016, the country witnessed a weaker credit rating of B-.
After just about 20 months of President Akufo-Addo’s government, Ghana is currently rated B+ Outlook by the Standard and Poor’s, a renowned international rating agency, which earned the nation oversubscribed Eurobond of three billion dollars with lower coupon rate and longer maturity payment recently.
He said President Akufo-Addo’s government had saved the nation 7.6 billion dollars by cancelling 11 dubious Power Purchasing agreements initiated by the NDC government under John Mahama.
