Managing director of the Tema Oil Refinery, Kwame Awuah Darko, has criticised the opposition New Patriotic Party for creating a false sense of prosperity during its eight-year rule of Ghana.
Speaking to Good Evening Ghana’s Paul Adom Otchere, the former NDC parliamentary aspirant lamented the poor policies churned out by the NPP after it got access to huge funds having signed up for the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) programme.
According to Kwame Awuah Darko, majority of the decisions taken by the NPP from 2001 to 2008 did not take into consideration the long-term needs of the country insisting the NPP only invested in the consumption side of the country’s economy creating a false impression of an improvement in the living standards of Ghanaians.
“ The economic miracle of the 8 years of NPP could not sustain itself. That means it was an inflated one. HIPC brought in a lot of money into the country because we didn’t have to spend money servicing debts. The HIPC money that came into the country was treated with one fundamental mistake. The money was not invested into infrastructure or into the productive side of the economy. The money was invested in the consumption side of the economy so there was a false wealth that was created…”
Kwame Awuah Darko added that the NPP government blew an opportunity to really transform the lives of Ghanaians having failed to create self-sustaining programmes and initiatives.
“NPP blew the HIPC opportunity on bad policies because it was a false economy. Now if it’ a real economy it would sustain itself, that’s the difference because you can’t fool the market. …From 200-2008 we were not able to use the revenues that accrued to the country in the form of HIPC on creating jobs”, he said.
