According to Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus resulted in the government receiving a sum of thirty billion Ghana cedis (GHS).
On the other hand, Mr. Asiedu Nketia asserted that the government frittered away the funds on election-related expenses.
On Monday, March 20, an address was given at the auditorium of the University of Professional Studies in Accra (UPSA).
The topic of the address was “Covid-19 brought the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia governments a windfall of approximately GHS30 billion to manage and mitigate the impact of the pandemic.” Unfortunately, this was thrown away on the costs associated with the election.
Johnson Asiedu Nketia emphasized the fact that COVID-19 ended up becoming a “corruption bonanza and a milking cow.”
In addition, he asserted that the government was not being truthful to the people of Ghana.
Johnson Asiedu Nketia stated that the President had given him the assurance that there would not be any reductions in investment, but Ghanaians are seeing it happen anyway.
Johnson Asiedu Nketia also said that the government had told the public many times that it would not ask for help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), even though it is now trying to make a deal with the Fund.
According to him, each and every one of these reeks of dishonesty.
Johnson Asiedu Nketia also said that the manufacturing sector of the economy has shrunk, with the number of people working there going down from 7.9% in 2016 to 4.4% in 2022.
According to his analysis, this casts doubt on the “impact of the much-touted One District, One Factory.”
In addition to this, he stated that “Construction also decreased from 8.4 percent to 4.2 percent despite the government’s claim of borrowing to build roads and other infrastructure.”
Johnson Asiedu Nketia went on to tell President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that he should take responsibility for the country’s economic woes and not place the blame on external factors such as COVID-19 and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.