Ken Ofori-Atta basks in his government’s past glories

The Finance minister’s posture when he appeared before the ad hoc committee in parliament on November 18, 2022, can be described as “confident” as he did not mince words on the “achievements” of his government.

According to him, “since 2017, we have competently managed the economy.”

He stated that allegations levelled against him by the proponents of the censure motion were unfounded and untrue.

Despite calls for his removal, Ofori-Atta said “Hon. Co-Chairs, we have competently managed the economy since 2017. Indeed, to appreciate where we are now, we need to look back at where we came from. At the close of 2016, an assessment of the Economy revealed:

i. limited fiscal space (fiscal deficit 6.5%);

ii. a distressed financial sector (NPL ratio-17.3%);

iii. an asset quality review document that had not been released;

iv. a derailed IMF-ECF programme and reduced economic output (GDP growth of 3.4%);

v. Inflation was 15.4% at the end of 2016;

vi. Monetary Policy rate (interest rate) was 25.5% at the end of December 2016;

vii. Limited CAPEX to MDAs; and

viii. ‘Dumsor’ which had decimated local industry and strongly impeded national productivity.

Hon. Co-Chairs, it is important to note that through our leadership and commitment to turn around the economy from its state in 2016, we made great strides and remarkable progress in the years before the pandemic and the records attest to this," the finance minister stated.

Ken Ofori-Atta also noted that his government doubled economic growth in the first three years, adding that Ghana’s growth in 2019 was touted as one of the highest globally.

“Inflation came down significantly from 15.4% to 7.9% at the end of 2019 and remained in single digits till the pandemic hit in March 2020 with a fiscal deficit which was about 6.5% was brought down to under 5 percent by the end of 2019,” he added.

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