The former National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration came under fire from the minority in parliament for Ken Ofori-Atta’s criticism.
The claim that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) inherited a troubled economy from the NDC cannot be true, according to the Minority.
“The Minister of Finance should not say anywhere again that the NDC administration left behind a derailed IMF programme. Clearly, at the time we were leaving office, there was no monetary finance. For the first time in the history of Ghana, the government did not take money from the central bank even though the law allowed the then administration to take 5% of the previous year’s revenue from the central bank.”
“The people of Ghana would recall that because the Mahama administration left behind a robust economy, the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government within the first three months of its assumption of office was able to borrow US$2.25 billion from Franklin Templeton”.
Minority Leader Ato Forson responded to Ofori-Atta by asserting that the Mahama administration left behind a strong economy in a statement.
Ato Forson emphasized that the NDC government fared far better than what Ghanaians are currently experiencing under the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo‘s administration.
“We did better than they are doing and the NDC will always do better when the good people of Ghana give John Mahama and our party the opportunity to govern from January 2025. Finally, the Minority in Parliament wishes to remind Governor Addison and Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta that the day of reckoning is very near and they will be held accountable for their collective mess,” he said.
He continued by saying that Ofori-Atta would go down in history for driving Ghana to the IMF while demanding the resignation of the Bog Governor.
“History will remember this Minister of Finance and the government’s Economic Mismanagement Team headed by Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia for taking Ghana to the IMF in an ambulance.”
NDC Left Behind A Robust Economy – Ato Forson Responds To Ofori-Atta#UTVNews pic.twitter.com/mYEKDifO6d
— UTV Ghana (@utvghana) September 18, 2023
Ofori-Atta claimed in an article that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government in 2017 had taken over from its predecessors a “derailed IMF programme and a highly impaired and ethically strained financial industry.”
His piece comes after several demands by the Minority for the resignation of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) due to allegations of improper management of the Central Bank.