Mahama Claims the Economy Is More Resilient under His Presidency

President John Dramani Mahama has defended his government’s management of the Ghanaian economy, claiming the nation’s economy has become very resilient under his presidency.
The President made the comments in an interview with Takoradi-based Twin-City Radio in the Western Region on Wednesday. The comments come at a time of increasing opposition attacks on the President’s economic management record and snowballing concerns that Ghana’s increasing national debt could sink the economy. But, President Mahama said Ghana’s economy is still very much robust.
“You know what is happening in the world, there is a financial crisis going on in the world and I have lived in this country all my life. In most cases where we see a collapse of commodity prices of two of our principal exports, the economy has always gone into a close spin.
As I speak, we are having a collapse of two of our major exports; gold is down, oils is down and so the single major export still sustaining the economy is cocoa. But even cocoa has even come down a bit, yet the economy is not experiencing the kind of shocks we use to experience in the past.”
The President said this shows that “there’s something happening in the economy.” “Recently, Fitch has come out with their report, they downgraded South Africa, Brazil and so many other countries, and yet Ghana maintained its rating with Fitch.
It should tell you that there is something happening with the economy, the economy is becoming more resilient than it was in the past; and what we’ve done is to lay the basis for more investments by building on the social and economic infrastructure. And in my next term of office, our focus will be on the livelihoods of Ghanaians, improving on Ghanaian incomes,” the President Mahama noted.
He also responded to questions on growing criticisms that the recent introduction of new taxes and levies has made Ghana an expensive business destination. “Ghana is an attractive place to do business and often we must use measurable instruments to make our points. People say Ghana has become a high cost of doing business and investments are falling.
There is no truth to it, if you go to GIPC; Ghana is one of the few countries that have seen increased investment.” President Mahama argued that “So if Ghana was an expensive place to do business, why would people still be coming to invest their monies? So it’s not borne out by the fact.
I hear a lot of opposition propaganda that says that companies are packing out and leaving Ghana and going to Cote D’Ivoire and several times I’ve asked, give me one single company that has packed and left and nobody is able to? Which companies? But its good political propaganda so people just re-echo it, there is no company packing and leaving,” the President insisted.
He also explained that Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire were commended at the CEO Executive forum in Abidjan for the management of their respective countries. “Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire are being commended as the two countries in West Africa that seem to have the potential to move this sub-region forward. Let’s not forget that Ghana’s economy is bigger than Cote D’Ivoire. Ghana’s economy is the second largest economy in West Africa, after Nigeria, a lot of Ghanaians don’t know this.
Cote D’Ivoire is third, it comes after us. So we are certainly doing something that is good, even though they are producing more cocoa than us, we have an economy that is larger than Cote D’Ivoire’s,” he added.