Ghana’s economic crisis an accumulative problem – Yao Graham

Coordinator of Third World Network-Africa, Dr. Yao Graham, says the economic crisis the country is faced with is an accumulative problem.

Dr. Yao Graham observed that the economic downturn Ghanaians are experiencing is a result of a piled-up problem created by successive governments.

He further attributed the country’s economic challenges to the accumulation of borrowing by successive governments.

Dr. Yao Graham asserted that proper scrutiny has not been done over the years to assess the management of loans borrowed by successive governments.

The Coordinator of the Third World Network-Africa stated that the economic crisis cannot be blamed on a single regime adding that government after government keep piling up the country’s debt stock.

“President John Agyekum Kufuor took the first euro bond loan during his time and has become part of us. It was the source of financing with consequences as it built up. There are questions to be asked about the basis on which those borrowings were done, the calculations about management, and accountability, because President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, when he spoke recently in the State of the Nation address said the monies were used to build infrastructure”.

Dr. Yao Graham pointed out that, “one of the realities of public finance management in our country is the weak accountability that we have. Successive governments built these things up. The crisis of our international finance at the moment is not a single regime problem, it is an accumulative problem. It’s an accumulative problem in two ways. One, the accumulation of the borrowing, two, the accumulation of the consequences of the paradigm in which we are operating”.

He said this during a public lecture on Thursday, April 6, in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the University of Ghana, under the theme, ‘restructuring the national economy, the need for a paradigm shift’.

The current economic crisis he said is the deepest crisis the country has had since 1975 and 1983.

“This is the deepest crisis we have had since 1975 and 1983. That crisis under late former President Jerry John Rawlings was the moment when Ghana became the shining star for neo-liberal reform in Africa. Trade and investment liberalisation,” he maintained.

Ghana, which is struggling with its worst economic crisis in a generation, secured a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in December for a $3 billion loan, though asking lenders to provide financing assurances is a condition for the IMF’s board to sign off the programme.