The former governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Kwabena Duffour, has said that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) can boast of the most impressive track record among Ghana’s political parties since the country gained independence in 1957.
In a news report by citinewsroom.com, Dr Duffuor who was once a flagbearer hopeful in the NDC’s last presidential primaries argued that the NDC’s achievements surpass even those of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who primarily focused on industrialisation.
“Between 2009 and 2012, our performance has been the best since independence. No government has achieved what we achieved between 2009 and 2012. For forty years, the interest rates had come down, the Treasury Bills (TB) rates came below 10 per cent, the Cedi over four years moved by 60 pesewas and our GDP was 14.5 in 2011,” he is quoted to have said.
The former Finance Minister also highlighted the NDC’s commendable efforts in job creation, which resulted in a significant reduction in unemployment rates for the first time between 2012 and 2013.
“The job creation during our time was first class. The unemployment figure had dropped to 2.2 per cent by the end of 2012/2013 and the figures are there to show.”
Dr Duffour also stated that he is actively campaigning to support former president John Dramani Mahama to kick out the New Patriotic Party from office come 2024.
“I am confident that we are winning because we are working and the NPP has been [in power] for seven years and has done little but our performance has been the best since independence,” he added.
However, he acknowledged the dollar-cedi difficulty faced by the NDC in 2014.
He said that the country’s economy remained unaffected by that due to stringent measures implemented by the NDC administration.
“There was a problem in 2014. There was a huge Cedi-Dollar problem but not so much in the depreciation of the Cedi because it was an exogenous problem.”
The comments by Dr Duffour come at the time the current governor of the central bank, Dr Ernest Addison is being pressured by the minority in parliament to resign from his office together with his two deputies.
The governors are being accused of printing money for the government without going through the appropriate channels.
Also, the governors are being accused of spending $250 million on a new headquarters for the central bank at a time when the country is facing a serious economic crisis.
Source: ghanaweb.com
