Ghana’s President John Mahama has made a firm promise to solve the country’s economic problems and lead the country on a good path to development. Presenting the State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Parliament on Thursday, 27th February, President Mahama stated that upon assuming office, his government discovered that the former administration, led by Nana Akufo-Addo, had mismanaged the economy to unprecedented levels.
In his address, he recalled making a similar pledge during his previous tenure to resolve the country’s intermittent power outages, a promise he successfully fulfilled.
I wish to place firmly on record that from January 2016 until I handed over the administration of this country on 7th January 2017, there was no power rationing or load management in Ghana.
Mr Speaker, today, inspired by the Almighty God and propelled by the massive mandate given to me by the good people of Ghana, I am moved to make a similar purposeful and bold declaration that I, John Dramani Mahama, will fix the economic crisis confronting our country and reset it on a path of growth and prosperity.
He also guaranteed: My government, working with you and every Ghanaian, will solve these challenges because we have developed a plan with the support of our people.
President Mahama criticized the previous administration for its mismanagement and reaffirmed his firm commitment to repairing the economy, stating that his government inherited a broken economy on all fronts and burdened by debt. Also read: Koforidua High Court is prevented from executing Akwatia MP by Supreme Court After an initial assessment of the books, we have discovered that our economic problems are much deeper than was previously known.
We have inherited a country that is broken on many fronts. The magnitude of the challenges confronting us is staggering.
After setting an inflation target of 18% by the end of 2024, the actual out-turn was 23.8%, significantly higher than the threshold agreed with the IMF. The Ghanaian cedi continued its downward slide, losing 19% of its value against the dollar in 2024.
President Mahama concluded by reaffirming his government’s commitment to resolving these economic challenges.