President Nana Akufo-Addo has come under harsh criticism from the Minority in Parliament for his recent comments criticizing international rating agencies.
President Akufo-Addo expressed his displeasure with the hasty downgrades made by rating agencies during the 30th anniversary celebration of the African Export-Import Bank in Accra.
He claimed that they are harmful to developing countries like Ghana and have contributed to the country’s current economic difficulties.
Stressing the impacts of the ratings, president Akufo-Addo said being “the AU champion for African financial institutions and leader of a country that recently had to deal with one of the most difficult periods in his post-independent history, difficulties that were exacerbated by the reckless behaviour of rating agencies that engaged in pro-cyclical downgrades that shut Ghana out of the capital market and turned a liquidity crisis into a solvency crisis.”
Isaac Adongo, the Deputy Ranking Member on the Parliament’s Finance Committee, however, referred to President Akufo-Addo as dishonest in response to his remarks.
These ratings, according to the Minority Member of Parliament, are an essential component of the accepted international financial systems.
In the past, when the rating agencies had given Ghana high ratings, he noted, the nation had benefited by successfully gaining access to the capital markets and securing sizeable investments.
“You see the dishonesty, when the rating agencies were rating us high and we were going to the capital markets and showing them the rating of Ghana and collecting the $3 billion, were we in bed with them to deceive the investors? What have the rating agencies said that is not true?
“They should tell that man [Akufo-Addo] that rating is not a diplomatic maneuver, he should stop going around his peers and telling them stories. The rating agencies and the capital market predates his own life and it is part of the global financial system that has come to be accepted. He has been a beneficiary of it.”
