Kwaku Kwarteng, Member of Parliament for Obuasi West and spokesperson on the Economy Committee, has attributed Ghana’s economic crisis to decades of bad politics and economic mismanagement by both past and present governments.
In an opinion piece, Mr. Kwarteng asserted that Ghana’s economy is being run like a Ponzi scheme, highlighting chronic overspending and borrowing practices.
“The economic problems Ghana is facing today, at both the national level and in households, are the cumulative effects of many decades spanning different governments of bad politics and economic mismanagement,” he wrote. “We have survived by constantly overspending our means and borrowing to finance the overspending. And many of these expenditures are just bad prioritisation.”
He further explained, “We always offer higher interest to lenders, borrow more, use a part to repay previous debts, and the rest to pay for the current year’s overspending. So, we have been running our country’s economy like a Ponzi scheme. The economy is struggling today because lenders are now refusing to lend to us. It is just like a Ponzi scheme going into crisis once people stop depositing their monies with them.”
Kwarteng urged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to provide visionary leadership to rescue the country from its economic woes if they hope to break the eight-year political cycle. He emphasised that the NPP must acknowledge past and present failures of the political class, moving away from the norm of labelling all politicians as corrupt.
“To break the eight, we must first break that norm by doing the following: Acknowledge the past and present failures of the political class to provide the kind of quality leadership required to avert the mess in which we find our country today. Adopt deep and far-reaching reforms to address the decades of bad politics and economic mismanagement,” Kwarteng stated.
He stressed that the NPP must convince voters of their commitment to fixing the country’s problems and demonstrate a willingness to stay the course despite challenges. “We must convince voters that we shall be ruthless in our determination to fix this country, that we shall stay the course no matter the challenges, and that there shall be no sacred cows!”
Kwarteng believes that breaking the eight-year cycle will follow naturally if the NPP sets a good example by acknowledging the country’s challenges, taking responsibility for its mistakes, and implementing meaningful change.
“Once we lead by example, we can say with integrity to our people that we are sinking in a common boat and call all Ghanaians to duty. As a political party, if we sincerely believe and can demonstrate our faithfulness to these commitments, breaking the eight will follow naturally.”
Additionally, Kwarteng called for an overhaul of the corrupt public procurement regime and addressed public concerns about the expenditure of national resources by politicians.
“We must address concerns about how much of our national resources we spend on ourselves as politicians and take steps to overhaul the corrupt public procurement regime we inherited from previous governments and have continued to live with,” he concluded.
Kwarteng’s statements come as Ghana faces significant economic challenges, with calls for comprehensive reforms becoming more pressing.