Richard Ahiagbah
The Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Richard Ahiagbah, says the National Democratic Congress (NDC) under the leadership of John Mahama should appreciate the performance of the ruling government, especially in restoring stability in the banking sector rather than promising to restore the licences of these banks when the party assumes office in 2025.
Speaking in an interview on Boiling Point, a flagship programme on Oman FM in Accra Tuesday following the former President’s comments to restore the licences of banks whose licences were revoked during the banking clean up in 2017 among others, he said the economy would have collapsed if NPP government had failed to intervene given the extent of challenges the banks were facing.
He said, “It is interesting when Mahama says he will restore banking licences to owners of collapsed banks. He thinks Ghanaians have forgotten all that the NDC did for failing to comply with the banking laws by supervising the mess under the banking sector. Mahama and the NDC should rather applaud the NPP for stabilising the sector instead of feeding into comments by section of Ghanaians that the NPP collapsed the banking sector.”
According to him, most of the owners and managers of the banks would have been prosecuted in other jurisdictions, especially when liquidity support meant for stabilising the operations of the banks were also mismanaged while the NDC government failed to act.
“These individuals which I would not want to name them used this liquidity support to establish Insurance companies, expand and invest in other private businesses at the detriment of the state. It is therefore unfortunate when Mahama says there will not be any room for wasting the tax payers money when he failed to comply with Act 960 enacted during his time,” he pointed out.
The Communications Director also asked Ghanaians to disregard the NDC and its allies for peddling falsehood that the NPP government had borrowed more than any other government.
He said that the NDC government under President Mahama borrowed 50 per cent of the country’s debt stock, recording lowest growth as far as the economy was concerned, and yet they continue to spew those false claims to deceive Ghanaians.
“Mahama borrowed 50 per cent of the total debt stock of the economy, so if you add all the accumulated debt stock, the former President borrowed 50 per cent of that,” he stated.
He said Ghana recorded significant growth from 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had devastating impact on the global economy.
He said in spite of the global economic challenges, Ghana under the leadership of President Akufo-Addo in 2021 recorded about 6 per cent growth.
Mr. Ahiagbah therefore called on Ghanaians to appreciate the performance of the ruling government and reject the lies perpetuated by members of the NDC and former President Mahama, who have taken advantage of the current global economic challenges to court public sympathy ahead of the 2024 elections.
Ebenezer K. Amponsah