Editor-in-chief of the Insight Newspaper, Mr. Kwesi Pratt Junior believes the harsh implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy cannot be blamed for the current hardship in Ghana.
According to him, unlike other parts of the world, the government of Ghana touts its handling of the contagion is far better than all other countries and that translates the Ghanaian economy had a little negative impact on the virus.
He could not fathom why the 2021 budget and economic policy presented on behalf of the President by Caretaker Minister of Finance, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu on Friday blamed COVID-19 for the country’s current predicaments.
“They [government] have constantly been telling us that Ghana’s management of COVID-19 is the best in the world. Now, if your management of COVID-19 is the best, it should have consequences for the economy. It means that the impact of COVID-19 on us will not be the same as the countries that mismanaged COVID-19.”
He indicated that, if that is the case, why then is President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-government attributing the untold hardship in the country to the COVID-19 virus which has caused a global scourge.
Mr. Pratt asserts that agreeing indeed Ghana’s management of the contagion is the best in the world raises choruses of questions about the current state of the Ghanaian economy which seems to be in a recession state.
“You turn round to look into our faces and say ‘look at what COVID-19 has done to the United States, Britain and other countries economy’ – It has done those things to the economy of those countries they mismanaged the COVID-19 situation. Did you also mismanage the COVID-19 situation?” he quizzed.
He again punched gaping holes into the government’s claim of being the best fighter of COVID-19 in the world describing it as preposterous.
“Lockdowns have been important contributors to economic decline, everywhere in the world. Ghana’s total lockdown for COVID-19 was for how many weeks? Three weeks. As we speak, Mauritius is still in lockdown. The impact of the lockdown on the Ghanaian economy is supposed to be far less than Mauritius because they have had a longer period of the lockdown and so on.”
“What is prudent and good management of the COVID-19 situation? It should have economic benefits. You cannot say we are the best in the world and still claim the consequences on your economy as the worst in the world. It doesn’t make sense. That is the point I’m making.”
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Evans Boateng
