Political analyst, Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante has sharply criticized the economic management of the Akufo-Addo-led government, describing it as a failure.
His remarks come in the wake of President Akufo-Addo’s assertion that posterity will judge the legacies of his administration. Many Ghanaians have labelled the current government as one of the most corrupt in the country’s history.
Speaking on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey, the Political Analyst, while acknowledging some positive aspects of the Akufo-Addo government, such as the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy, criticised the economy, which he described as the most critical aspect of governance.
He emphasised that despite early warnings, the president ignored signals of economic distress, leading to what he called a “woeful” failure in economic management.
Dr. Asah-Asante pointed out that the mismanagement of the economy was so severe that it necessitated a $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He argued that such a situation could have been avoided if corruption, which Transparency International and the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) report costs the country over $3 billion annually, had been addressed effectively.
He stressed that tackling corruption could have reduced the need for external borrowing and improved the country’s economic situation.
According to Dr. Asah-Asante, the failure to manage public finances properly and curb corruption has had a detrimental impact on the economy, leaving the country in a precarious financial position.
“The good aspect of what he [Akufo-Addo] did can be seen in areas like education where in spite of the difficulties this country goes through all the time, particularly during his time, he was able to shepherd the free SHS programme to the state that we find it today to the extent that if you look at the performance of the Free SHS at the WASSCE level, it has been a very an improved performance and we’ve seen our children going to school at the level with all the benefits that they derive from it, a good policy even though the policy needs evaluation and overhaul in order to improve it to bring it to another level. But come to governance indicators specifically, let me touch on the economy which is the critical index in the governance architecture.”
“The economy, the president failed woefully against the backdrop that there were early signals people gave to the president that they all fell on deaf ears; the president did not mind all these, and we are where we are as a result of mismanagement of the economy, there’s absolutely no doubt about that. We’ve mismanaged the economy to the extent that we have to be in IMF for 3 billion dollars, which when we are able to pluck corruption, which transparent International, local branch, GII tell us that every year we lose more than 3billion dollars to corruption, fix corruption and we don’t go to IMF.”
