Professor Stephen Adei, a former Board Chair of the Ghana Revenue Authority, has blamed the current economic crisis on a number of factors that he believes are significant.
Professor Adei noted that the fundamental economic weaknesses include low productivity, systematic corruption, a lack of patriotism, a desire for foreign goods, and others.
Governments, according to the former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), must learn from these difficult times.
“It is true that during the domestic debt exchange, those who were campaigning so that individuals do not accept it came out very strong on how expenditure can be reduced, and I agree with them. Government can manage the economy with less. We should be able to make our intentions so that we can avoid the lessons of the past.”
He believes that the blame game between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is ineffective.
“I do not want to make pronouncements as to whether the Akufo-Addo government is worse or better than the Mahama government. I think that there is a situation that makes the comparison to apples and oranges because both of them took us to IMF.”
Prof. Adei slammed the Akufo-Addo administration earlier this week for excessive borrowing, which he blames for the country’s economic crisis.
According to the renowned economist, while the emergence of COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukraine war may have had an impact on Ghana’s economy, the fundamental error made by the government was borrowing beyond its capacity.
As a result, he is urging the government to accept responsibility and work to improve the country’s fortunes.
Professor Adei made the remarks while speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Signature Market Pre-launch campaign at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi.
“I believe the biggest mistake they made was borrowing beyond our ability to service it. If a country borrows beyond its capacity, it will be in trouble, as COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine [war] demonstrated.
Professor Adei also wants Ghanaians to hold government officials accountable in order to avoid a similar situation in the future.
“We have to learn and not repeat our mistakes by going on a borrowing spree, we should become watchdogs. The leakages should be reduced, the level of corruption, the wastage from the government after government is high so we don’t get value for money,” he stated.
