The Member of Parliament for the Suame constituency in the Ashanti region has stated that if there is ever the need to assess the progress of the Akufo-Addo-led administration, it should be based on the first three years in office before COVID-19 struck.
The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs believes that the many hardships the country is encountering are not ones intentionally created by the Akufo-Addo regime but unforeseen and unplanned conditions never anticipated by any country in the world.
Speaking in an interview with Etsey Atisu on Election Desk on GhanaWeb TV, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu added that it is reasonable to believe and attribute the hardships in Ghana’s economy to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For me, if you want to do any objective assessment of the performance of Akufo-Addo’s regime, it should be the first three years when covid had not struck. That was the force majeure that was never anticipated by any country. At the time, we overexaggerated our strength a bit but we were hardest hit,” he said.
The MP also mentioned the Russian-Ukrainian war as a factor in Ghana’s economic decline as according to him, Ghana transacted a lot of business with Ukraine.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu added that the war in Ukraine cut off a lot of benefits Ghana enjoyed from the country hence shattering our economy.
“Our dealings with Ukraine in many areas; the importation of fertilizer, wheat importation, flour importation, cement, steel products and even the scholarship they were awarding our students, our partnership with Ukraine was, you know, a huge partnership that weighed grossly in our favour.
“So, the economy got shattered by all these forces but as I’m saying, we are climbing up and I believe we will get there,” he told GhanaWeb.
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