Ghana is doing better now - Nigerian banker

Charles Chukwuma Soludo, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), perhaps surprised a gathering of friends and family of the late Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, at the one year commemoration of his death by declaring that Ghana is currently in a better shape than other countries in West Africa.

"Ghana is doing relatively well, comparatively. On the size of GDP, Ghana is now the 10th largest in Africa as at 2018, with GDP growth averaging over 6%, Nigeria is stuck at 2%, for the sake of context." said Soludo to the audience.

The first Amissah-Arthur Memorial Lecture was held at the University of Ghana Business School on Friday, June 27, 2019.

The cross-section of the audience at the lecture featured former president to whom Amissah-Arthur was vice, John Dramani Mahama.

Soludo stating facts that he gathered, continued: "[Ghana's] unemployment is less than 3%, Nigeria is at 23. While youth unemployment [in Ghana] is at 13%, Nigeria's is 36%".

He then declared to applause: "Ghana is perhaps, not perhaps...if you go by the publication by [The Fund for Peace] on the fragile states index, Ghana is the most stable country in West Africa."

The Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo; a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ernest Aryeetey; a former Minister of Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman; former and current government officials and other stalwarts of the NDC were all present at the lecture.

The lecture by the former Nigerian central bank governor would have mesmerised a few of the NDC gurus who have been preaching exactly the opposite story.

The portrait painted by Soludo would definitely have troubled a few, if not many including former president and 2020 NDC flagbearer John Mahama.

A lecture in honour of a big NDC man may not have gone the way he expected; praising the state of Ghana under the New Patriotic Party administration and Nana Akufo-Addo's presidency.