The Second Deputy Majority Whip of Ghana’s Parliament, Richard has stated that the past New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration exited office leaving behind four months of import cover due to its non-payment of debts.
Contributing the Budget and Economic Policy of the He explained that interests and principal payments have all been differed and wondered why somebody who failed to honour its debts obligations could boast about bequeating four months import cover to its successor.
“Mr Speaker, I also hear them say, that they left four months of import cover, ahh! Mr Speaker, you are not pating your debt. Payment of interests and pricipals have been differed, and if you are not paying your debt, woun’t you have reserves?. Go and pay the debts and see, go and pay tge debt. You suspended payments of interests and principals and you are here bragging, we left four montths import cover. Take off payments of interest and principal, you’ll see your level”, Hon Acheampong stated.
On cutting waste, the Bia East MP said the drastic reduction in the number of Ministers of State from 123 to 60 by President Mahama with reduced overhead expenditure, the huge hole dug in the name of a national cathedral, the non-travelling in a chartered flight and non-payments of salaries to ghosts names on the national payroll, amongs others amounts to waste cutting.
He accused the NPP administration of rendering Ghanaians in a state of poverty with interest payments of Ghc 46 billion on borrowings at the end of 2024 against the NDC’s Ghc 10 billion at the end of 2016.
Ghana current debt he said stood at Ghc 726 billion
Mr Acheampong noted that the GDP growth of 1.2 billion claim by the NPP does not have direct reflect and physical manifestation in the living standards of the citizenry.
The NPP’s Score Card
The NPP he said grew the cocoa sector by negative 22.4%, the livestock sector by 3.5% as compared to the NDC which did 5.4%, as well as the superior record of the NDC which grew the forestry sector by 2.9% and against NPP’s 2.5%, whiles the fishing sector grew by 3.1% comparatively whiles the manufacturing 7.9% against 7.8% whiles the performance of the NDC in the financial and insurance sector, stood at 8% compared to 1.5% of the NPP.
According to him, the Ghana cedi depreciated by 9.6% at the end of 2016 as compared to 19.2% at the end of 2024 under the NDC and NPP regimes respectively whiles inflation stood at 15.4% compared to 23.8%.
