The Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid has called on Ghanaians to be patient and afford the Akufo-Addo led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government some reprieve as it fashions out ways to salvage the ailing economy.

Speaking Wednesday March 8, 2017, he assured that the Akufo-Affo government will fulfill all the promises made during electioneering.

“Let’s be patient, after all the full complement of the government is not even in place. As I speak, there are no Deputy Ministers, there are no DCEs and so on, so, the entire government machinery is not fully formed,” he indicated.

He added: “The president said in his State of the Nation address that he is hoping that by the end of March, he would have succeeded in putting his government in place. This is a record time even to have the ministers in place. In years past, it has always been at the end of March or sometimes in April before we have ministers in place.

“In Nigeria, when Buhari took over in May 2015, his ministers were named in September, so, we are doing quite well in that respect in putting the government in place. So, please let the Ghanaian people be patient for us for a while and hopefully by the end of March, when government machinery is in place, things will begin to stabilise.”

The President in his first State of the Nation Address painted a gloomy picture of the country’s economy, accusing the previous government of messing up the economy—with the country’s debt stock ballooning to GHc122bn in 2016 from GHc9.5bn in 2009.

That notwithstanding he said he would not allow the economy to further plummet under his watch, stating that the challenges call for prudent concerted efforts aimed at addressing them.

“I have heard it said that I am behaving like a man in a hurry. Mr. Speaker, I am, indeed, in a hurry, I am in a great hurry. The times, in which we live, demand that we, all, be in a hurry to deal with the problems we face.

“The conditions in our country demand that government machinery functions efficiently and at full force, and that nothing is left on autopilot,” the
president stated.