Vice President of Ghana , Mahamudu Bawumia
The Import and Export Association of Ghana has said they are disappointed in Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia over his recent lecture because he failed to address the pressing issues affecting Ghanaians.
Speaking to Joshua Kwadjo Mensah on Starr Today, the Executive Secretary for the Association, Sampson Asaki Awingobit said Dr. Bawumia could not say anything significant to lessening the burden on the ordinary Ghanaian.
According to him, “what he did was a waste of the taxpayers of money” because the Vice President had Ministers of State moving their cars fueled with the taxpayer's money to the event just for him to launch his political ambition.
“I was confused, to ask what kind of economic statement or policy the Vice President was telling Ghanaians. Because the Finance Minister came with the Budget for 2022 at their Cabinet meeting in which they discussed how to do some adjustments on the government expenditure and so many things.
“The Bank of Ghana also came with their policy rate and asked Commercial Banks to increase their thresholds. His Excellency the President also came to Parliament as the Constitution required to tell Ghanaians the state of the economy and where the government is heading with Ghana,” Mr. Awingobet disclosed.
He further stated that “So from what Dr. Bawumia said one will ask one way or the other that was he trying to market himself because he is now gunning to become the flag-bearer of the New Patriotic Party.”
The Executive Secretary also disclosed that he was expecting that the Vice President will tell Ghanaians about measures being put in place to reduce the skyrocketing of goods and services.
“The Vice President should highlight the cost of cement price, the cost of iron rod price that is what the ordinary Ghanaians are looking for. But what the Vice President said, was it was just a platform for him to promote himself and a platform for him to win the soul of the NPP TEIN who of course will be voting when it comes to selecting who will be leading the party for 2024,” Mr. Awingobit reiterated.
The Vice President during a Danquah Institute and NPP’s TESCON organized an event on the state of the economy on Thursday, April 7, 2022, attributed the drastic depreciation of the local currency to challenges in approving the 2022 budget and the Russia-Ukraine war.
He further added that the situation brought about low investor confidence in Ghana’s economy among others.
“The financial markets’ assessments of the 2022 budget, unfortunately, concluded that our projected 40% increase in revenue which underpinned the 2022 budget was not likely to materialize and therefore, our deficit will increase,” he disclosed during Danquah Institute and the NPP’s TESCON organized an event on the state of the economy on Thursday, April 7, 2022.
He continued “The chaotic battle in Parliament over the budget and the passage of the budget did not also help matters. This created uncertainty and signal to the market that government may not be able to get most of its programs passed in a tightly balanced Parliament. This further reinforced the lack of confidence by investors in the budget.”
Vice President Bawumia also mentioned the downgrading of the economy by international rating agencies as some of the factors.