I acknowledge that times are hard – Bawumia

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has acknowledged the economic hardship currently being experienced in Ghana.

The vice president, speaking at National Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) National Conference, on Thursday, noted that the current situation, despite its cause, has been witnessed in the country before.

“From the man on the streets to the business mogul, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the shelter we seek or have, to the benevolence we extend to friends and family, the health of the economy is what we feel in our pockets. I acknowledge that times are hard. This is the reality irrespective of the cause,” he noted.

Outlining the status of things inherited by the current government, Dr Bawumia stated that the state of the economy at the time the NPP assumed power was nothing to write home about.

“Not long ago, we had felt similar despair. The fear of losing our lives to a pandemic and the near halt to our economy as we battled to survive each day. Some years ago, also we had been confronted by very dire economic circumstances. The joblessness of our youth, years of lights out that impacted adversely on businesses and jobs, the disappointment of dealing with a collapsed national health insurance system and inability to access health care, the bane of the cash and carry system, a nearly collapsed national ambulance system, freeze on public sector employment, an almost collapsed banking sector and so on,” he listed.

He emphasised that despite the state of the economy inherited by the government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, they had since gone on to build a resilient Ghanaian economy until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict hit home.

“Like previous ones, the government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo put in much effort to turn things around and elevate the standards of living of the Ghanaian people above what the situation used to be at the time this government was formed in 2017. Taking over from then meant we had to do our best also to make things work and better.

“Together as a country, we proceeded to fix the economy. We made great gains and the records attest to this. Prior to the Coronavirus pandemic which has impacted all economies in the world, we stabilized the economy. We: – reduced inflation – doubled economic growth in our first three years – reduced the rate of exchange rate depreciation. The exchange rate depreciation was stabilized with Ghana recording the lowest rate of depreciation in the last 28 years, notwithstanding the pandemic and the 2020 general election. The average depreciation for 2017-2020 was the lowest for any first-term government since 1992,” the vice president said.

In a long speech that lasted an hour and over, Dr Bawumia addressed several issues surrounding the current state of Ghana’s economy while outlining some of the measures and achievements of the government in developing the economy.

Also at the lecture were several bigwigs of the New Patriotic Party who also used the platform to tout the government’s successes.

From taxation to revenue generation, education and employment, the vice president spoke on several areas of Ghana’s economy at the Thursday, April 7, 2022, event held at the Millennium City, Kasoa Yesukrom.