The Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has voiced its disagreement with suggestions put forth by Dr. John Kwabena Kwakye, Director of Research at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), regarding the adoption of the US Dollar as Ghana’s currency to stabilize the economy.
Mensah Thompson, Executive Director of ASEPA, argued against the proposal, stating that Ghana’s primary challenges in stabilizing the economy stem from prolonged recklessness and excessive borrowing, rather than the choice of currency.
Speaking on Citi TV’s Breakfast Daily with host David Kwaku Saforo-Sakyi, Mr Thompson attributed Ghana’s current economic woes to what he deemed as the recklessness of former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, and President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Thompson emphasized that the root cause of the economic challenges lies in irresponsible fiscal management, borrowing practices, and a lack of understanding of basic economic principles, rather than the need for dollarization.
“We are here not because our currency is not held in dollars, we are here because of the recklessness of Ken Ofori-Atta, the governor of the Central Bank and President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The root cause of our problem is recklessness, borrowing and people who just don’t understand simple economic management who implemented faze economic restructuring that has thrown the economy into a cyclic spiral now going back into a debt hole and the solution is not dollarisation.
Furthermore, Thompson criticized the decision to restructure Ghana’s domestic debt, which he deemed detrimental to the stability of the Ghanaian Cedi.
He questioned why the government entrusted the task of overseeing debt restructuring to individuals like Ken Ofori-Atta, especially considering what he described as their previous recklessness in fiscal management.
Thompson expressed surprise at the decision to allow Ofori-Atta to handle the debt restructuring process, given the perceived negative impact of his past actions on the economy.
“I have always asked myself, why did the government, after all the recklessness of Ken Ofori-Atta, still decide that if they were going under a debt restructuring programme, Ken Ofori-Atta was the person they were going to allow to oversee that debt restructuring, I was surprised when he decided to restructure our domestic debt.”
