Ghana suffering from ‘Mahamanomics’ - Gabby

Executive Director of the Danquah Institute is condemning government handling of the economy saying its obsession with borrowing will eventually lead to a government shutdown. Speaking on Multi TV and Joy FM's Newsfile, Gabby Otchere-Darko described the fiscal strategy as 'Mahamanomics'.

It means borrowing more to pay debt only to borrow more and more, Gabby explains, and this is the financial culture of the governing NDC.

He catalogued, government borrowed Ghc7bn from the domestic capital market when it had projected a ceiling of Ghc2.7bn.

According to Gabby, there is overspending in several government agencies such as Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) while borrowing Ghc8bn in 8 months.

The executive director assessed that Ghana's critical problem is youth unemployment and so for government to sink Ghc1bn in GYEEDA in 4 years, without any visible impact smacks of a lack of strategy.

Government is not prioritizing well enough and that with the way it was managing the economy, it would not need the help of the opposition to run the country down, he stated.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) man does not see any strategy government is adopting to address an economy that is "crawling in tatters".

But Minister of Information and Media Relations, Mahama Ayariga defends that confidence in Ghana's economy is suffering in part because of the Presidential Election Petition - an 8-month legal feud in the Supreme Court led by the opposition NPP on who really won the 2012 December presidential results.

Further to this, he said, prices of Ghana's traditional exports such as gold has been hit by low prices and $188m is yet to be released by Ghana's donor partners.

He said government borrows on behalf of state-owned enterprises and revealed that these enterprises will soon be allowed to borrow on their own accounts without recourse to government.