A United States based Economist, Dr Sa-ad Iddrisu, has taken an opposite view on Dr Bawumia’s economic lecture, describing it as a propaganda event.
According to Dr Iddrisu, “Listening to Dr. Bawumia makes one believe that he was brought out from his long silence, just to entertain NPP faithful’s and not to actually address the economic problems facing the country now.”
He said that the government reckless borrowing was justified with nonexistent projects, “To justify this recklessness and mismanagement of the funds borrowed, Dr. Bawumia decides to list over 100 projects as indication of what the funds were used for. Questions every Ghanaian should ask include: How many of these listed projects are actually projects completed by this government? How many of the listed projects are still nearing completion? For as far as you know, not even a brick has been laid in the sites of many of these projects listed by Dr Bawumia. In fact, the Yendi Water Project is an example of this since not a single brick has been laid on the project site to date.”
“Again, on the projects, if Dr Bawumia was really delivering an economic lecture, he should have told Ghanaians how many jobs have been created from these projects. I was expecting Dr. Bawumia to tell us in his lecture, how many direct and indirect jobs have been created from these projects he listed and also how many of those jobs were temporary or continuous jobs. In an economy where unemployment is becoming a national security threat, the emphasis should be on job creation when borrowing funds for projects”, Dr. Iddrisu said.
Dr Iddrisu also address other issues like digitization, corruption, the planting for food program, and the one district one factory program, in Dr Bawumia’s lecture.
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Below is the full statement by Dr. Iddrisu:
The Vice President, Dr Bawumia, thrilled his party supporters and sympathizers with his recent propaganda event which he term an ‘economic lecture’. Listening to Dr Bawumia makes one believe that he was brought out from long silence, just to entertain NPP faithful’s and not to actually address the economic problems currently facing the country.
The whole lecture was to shift the blame for the mismanagement of the economy onto Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war which started on Feb 24, barely two months to date. Even in doing so, Dr. Bawumia failed to tell Ghanaians what measures the government he serves under, has taken or plans to take, in order to mitigate the rising food prices in our various markets.
On the issue of borrowing, Nana Addo’s government has borrowed more in six years than all Presidents combined since Ghana attained independence. According to the Bank of Ghana Monetary Policy Report for January 2022 and January 2017, total stock of Ghana’s public debts stood at GH¢344.6 billion at November 2021 and GH¢127.3 billion as at November 2016, respectively. That is a dollar equivalent of $58.2 billion as at November 2021 and $30.1 billion as at November 2016, using past and present exchange rates. This means that the current government under Nana Addo in 6 years has increased our public debt by 93.4%, using the dollar equivalent for comparison. That is to say, Nana Addo government in six years has borrowed almost double of what all governments borrowed in dollars since the country’s independence.
To justify this recklessness and mismanagement of the funds borrowed, Dr Bawumia decides to list over 100 projects as indication of what the funds were used for. Questions that every Ghanaian should ask include: How many of these listed projects are actual projects completed by this government? How many of the listed projects are still nearing completion? For as far as you know, not even a brick has been laid in the sites of many of these projects listed by Dr Bawumia. In fact, the Yendi Water Project is an example of this since not a single brick has been laid on the project site to date.”
Again, on the projects, if Dr Bawumai, was really delivering an economic lecture, he should have told Ghanaians how many jobs have been created from these projects. I was expecting Dr. Bawumia to tell us in his lecture, how many direct and indirect jobs have been created from these projects he listed and also how many of those jobs were temporary or continuous jobs. In an economy where unemployment is becoming a national security threat, the emphasis should be on job creation when borrowing funds for projects.
Also, I was shocked to listen to Dr Bawumia, saying planting for food program has increased food supplies in the country. This is palpably false. The rising food prices witnessed in our markets even before the Russia-Ukraine war, is an indication that demand outweighs supply of these food stuffs, and thus the planting for food program is a massive failure.
On the issue of moving from taxation to production, one district and one factory was made mentioned by Dr Bawumia.
Again, mentioning the number of factories started by this government without their economic impacts, is just another propaganda. Telling Ghanaians the number of jobs created by these factories and the volume of output that has been generated from them, is what would have made the lecture an economic lecture and not a propaganda show. Your guess is as good as mine that some of these factories touted as achievements by this government, are essentially nonexistent.
On digitization, Dr Bawumia praised the government for promoting financial inclusion through Momo interoperability.
Conveniently, he dodges the introduction of the E-Levy which has so far led to a decline in Momo transactions by over GH₵3 billion. What is the economic sense in creating a financial inclusion for the poor and turning around to push them again back to the cash system with the introduction of E-Levy?
Also, the statement that digitation has reduced corruption is palpably false. The data from Transparency International Corruption Index does not support that claim. The recent best score corruption index of 43 in the year 2021, is John Mahama worse score in 2016. Thus, this government has performed far worse in fighting corruption than what Dr Bawumia told Ghanaians in his propaganda lecture.
