Former Fin Minister disappointed with the economy management for the last four years

 

Adnan Adams Mohammed

A former Minister of Finance under NDC administration has indicated his disappointment of how the economy was managed under Akufo-Addo’s first-term administration indicating that they had so much opportunity to do better.

The minister noted that, the erstwhile Mills/Mahama administration left behind a conducive economic environment for the NPP Government from 2017 to 2020 to stabilize and improve the economy.

“The management of the economy could have been better. I say this against the background of the fact that, yes, we did have coming out of the global financial crisis and coming out of the slump in crude oil and petroleum prices in 2015 and 2016. However, there were opportunities in 2017. Let me mention first the banking sector crisis that faced us as a result of the global financial crises and the fall in crude oil prices which had a solution in ESLA”, Seth Terkper, former finance minister under Mills/Mahama administration intimated in a TV interview.

“ESLA by Government’s own projection is estimated to bring us about GHC41 billion by 2024 or 2025. That tells you that there should be enough resources. You can also point to crude oil prices which have fallen and rebounded between 2016 and 2017.”

“Within three years of the administration and based on the petroleum report, the current administration has benefitted from 66 percent of the revenue from oil production since 2011. So in three years, the administration has earned more revenue than the eight years of the Mills/Mahama administration”.

Mr Terkper noted that while he will not downplay the effects of COVID-19, he holds that the Akufo-Addo Government “has had the most fiscal resources despite the challenges”. “Few governments have faced crisis apart from Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative. Even with this crisis, there were resources that has helped to resolve it”, he added.

In his first State of the Nation Address, President Akufo-Addo noted that he inherited a bad economy from the NDC Government as he explained that the former NDC government missed all targets under the IMF programme due to fiscal indiscipline.

“Virtually all the targets under the IMF programme, as at December 2016, have been missed. Fiscal indiscipline, once again, reared its head in the 2016 election year.

Total projected expenditure for 2016 was GH¢43.9 billion (26% of GDP), but actual expenditure amounted to GH¢50.3 billion (30.2% of GDP).

The full facts of the situation have not been put before the Ghanaian people”, the President said.