Former President John Dramani Mahama says the Akufo- Addo led administration has no credible or viable plan to get the Ghanaians out of the curren
Former President John Dramani Mahama says the Akufo- Addo led administration has no credible or viable plan to get the Ghanaians out of the current economic crisis.
In a Facebook post, he stated that the collective buy-ins from Ghanaians, development partners and investors are being ignored when they can be used to alleviate the current crisis.
He added that the much needed Post COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan is nowhere in sight. According to him, the recovery plan would lay “a firm blueprint for fiscal consolidation in the face of a worsening economic situation.”
The former President further adds that, beyond the “ill-conceived” E-levy, the Akufo-Addo administration seems to have no viable plan to alleviate the current economic hardships of the Ghanaian people.
In addition, he states that government must borrow a leaf from the approach of the NDC during the challenges the party faced in 2015 while it was in power.
“As I have indicated previously, the government must as a matter of urgency, borrow a leaf from our sound approach toward the challenges we faced in 2015. We immediately convened the Senchi Economic Forum at which we tapped the brains and expertise of a wide variety of knowledgeable people and stakeholders and built a consensus on our economic plan going forward.”
Former President John Mahama stressed that President Akufo- Addo is nonchalant to the crisis on the ground and his team has limited responses to harsh tax measures.
“Yet, President Nana Akufo-Addo and his Head of the Economic Management Team, rather appallingly, remain nonchalant in the face of this serious crisis and have limited their response to the imposition of very harsh and regressive tax measures, one of which is the E-Levy, which has been roundly rejected by the people of Ghana.”
He also stated that the Akufo- Addo administration received and misused the largest economic bailout in the history of Ghana from the IMF, World Bank and others.
He said, it’s a pity that the NPPs economic plan is largely reliant on the e-levy.
“The Akufo-Addo administration in 2020/21 received and misapplied the largest windfall or bailout in Ghana’s history: a $1 billion concessional facility from the IMF, another $1 billion in SDR allocation, $430 million from the World Bank, $250 million from the Stabilization Fund, Gh¢10 billion from the Central Bank. This amounted to a total of about GH¢33 billion.
“It is a pity that today, the NPP’s entire economic plan hinges on the passage of an E-levy expected to raise a little over Gh¢6 billion. How did we arrive here?”
The former President is of the view that, the current administration must swallow its pride and set up a forum to engage stakeholders for a better solution to the current challenges before “we hit a point of no return.”
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