Bawumia to Mahama: IMF did the ‘rescue mission’ after your mismanagement

Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia has taken a swipe at former President John Dramani Mahama’s election 2020 tagline ‘Rescue Mission’, saying his only rescue mission was running to the International Monetary Fund after mismanaging the economy.

Dr Bawumia said this yesterday during a lecture on the topic “A Case of Four More Years To Do More For You” at the Cedi Conference Centre, at the Department of Economics, University of Ghana.

“You remember that the NDC government had to go to the IMF to rescue the economy. That was indeed a Rescue Mission. It was clear that the Mahama-led NDC Government had lost its way, failed Ghanaians, and did not have any idea how to get us out of the ditch it had driven us into,” Dr Bawumia said.

Economic challenges

According to Dr Bawumia, the Mahama government took the country into a ditch, which brought hardships to Ghanaians.

“I am aware you need no reminders of the dire economic conditions at the time we came into office. You lived and breathed it, and bore the human cost of the economic mismanagement that was visited upon us by the Mahama-led NDC government,” Dr Bawumia said.

He mentioned some of the challenges as growing unemployment, leading to the formation of Unemployed Graduates Association, the effects of four years of dumsor, which led to job losses, high electricity tariffs, collapsing NHIS and ambulance service, lack of basic facilities like textbooks and chalks in public schools, cancellation of nursing and teacher trainee allowance, backlog of unemployed nurses, non-payment of teachers, burdensome taxes, among others.

“You remember that trainee nurses and teachers’ allowances were cancelled, millions of Ghanaians were unable to get cover under a collapse National Health Insurance Scheme as Cash-and-Carry reared its ugly head again because of the inability of Government to pay service providers. The National Ambulance Service was collapsing. You remember the 3-month pay policy for teachers, the problem of the unavailability of textbooks and even chalk in our schools, the freeze on recruitment into the public sector,” he said.

Prosperous Ghana

Dr Bawumia noted that having been overwhelmingly voted for by Ghanaians in 2016, the Akufo-Addo government set out to roll back the human cost of the economic mismanagement by the previous government and to create the foundation for an inclusive, prosperous Ghana.

He said that the Akufo-Addo government’s vision was broadly anchored on seven objectives, which were to “stabilise and grow the economy, transform the economy, create jobs, especially for the youth, modernise, digitise and formalise the economy, make development inclusive and protect the vulnerable, fight corruption and create a safe, secure environment for citizens and businesses to thrive.”

Dr Bawumia noted that before Coronavirus devasted the world’s economy this year, the Akufo-Addo Addo government had achieved it objective of stabilising and growing the economy it inherited from the NDC.

“Prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, which has impacted all economies in the world, we established the economy. We reduced inflation, doubled economic growth in our first three years, reduced the rate of exchange rate depreciation; the exchange rate depreciation stabilized with Ghana recording the lowest depreciation in the last 28,” he said.

He said the government had also reduced the fiscal deficit (pre Covid-19), and improved the country’s external payments position, which is stronger today than it was in 2016.

Banking sector

The Vice-President also made reference to the clean-up of the mess in the financial sector that the NPP inherited, including the government’s decision to pay up to 50,000 to all customers of affected Fund Management Companies on compassionate grounds.

“We took the decisive decisions to avoid the collapse of the financial sector, save the deposits of 4.6 million depositors and save jobs. Thus far, government has spent GHC21 billion to clean up the sector. 99% of depositors of the affected banks, microfinance and savings and loans companies have been fully settled,” Dr Bawumia said.

He noted that the impressive performance of the Akufo-Addo government led to Ghana becoming the investment destination of choice in West Africa.

Economic transformation

Dr Bawumia said the Akufo-Addo government did not only seek to stabilise the economy, but also took steps to transform the nature of the economy by improving agricultural productivity to reduce dependence on food import, add value to raw materials through industrialisation and reduce the cost of energy and of running businesses and industries in Ghana.

“These we have achieved through Planting for Food and Jobs, Planting for Export and Rural Development and Rearing for Food and Jobs. PFJ has led to a 71% increase in the national production of maize and 34% in paddy rice. Yields per hectare of maize, rice, and soybean have also increased significantly and we now export 19 different food items, including maize, to the rest of ECOWAS countries,” he explained.

2020 elections

Dr Bawumia stated unequivocally that President Akufo-Addo has delivered on his 2016 promises, and appealed to Ghanaians to give him four more years to continue with his good works and move Ghana ahead.

“We ask you to give us four more years because our government, borne out of the NPP, under the leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has kept faith with you, Ghanaians, by delivering on the commitments we made to you,” he stated.