Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has revealed that the New Patriotic Party, prior to assuming power on January 7, 2017, was largely aware of the mess created by the previous administration led by John Dramani Mahama.
“Let’s start at the beginning. The NPP under the leadership of Nana Akufo-Addo was largely aware of the nature of the problems that existed in the economy before we came into office. We had analysed these problems, talked about them and put forward solutions which were largely captured in our 2016 Election Manifesto,” he said at the 7th Town Hall meeting held at the Great Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology(KNUST).
Listing the problems the NPP inherited, he said, “Some of the problems that existed in the economy, many of which were worsened following the eight years of NDC government, included:
• Declining Economic growth;
• High Inflation rate
• High-Interest rates
• High exchange rate depreciation
• High fiscal deficit
• Rapid accumulation of debt. 12-fold increase in debt
• Weak and collapsing financial system
• High Unemployment
• The NHIS was back to cash and carry.
• Emergency healthcare system was collapsing with only 55 semi-functional ambulances in the country
• Four years of dumsor with its costs
• Average annual increase in electricity prices between 2010 and 2015 was 45%
• Increases in taxes on many items
• Freeze on public sector recruitment
• Cuts in research allowances for lecturers
• Abolition of teachers training allowances
• Abolition of nurses training allowances
• Teachers paid 3 months arrears after working for 2-3 years.
• High Import Duties
• Corrupt practices associated with the acquisition of passports and drivers licenses.
• Problems renewing NHIS membership
• Cumbersome process to clear goods at the ports.
• Many parents could not afford school fees for their children for SHS
• No national ID card
• No working nationwide address system
• Corrupt practices associated with manual court processes
• IMF program was resorted to restore policy credibility with its attendant conditionalities.”
