General News of Monday, 20 January 2020

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Akufo-Addo’s government has reduced Bawumia to an ICT Development Officer – Ricketts-Hagan

Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, Former Deputy Minister of Finance Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, Former Deputy Minister of Finance

Former Deputy Minister of Finance and MP for Cape Coast South, Kweku Ricketts-Hagan has mocked the government for reducing the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, to an ICT Development Officer, instead of being the Head of the Economic Management Team (EMT).

He cited the bad management of the economy, the lack of finding solutions to the cedi depreciation and the ramifications of the banking crisis as evidence that the EMT, under Dr Bawumia has failed, hence the President no longer has confidence in his Vice President.

He further noted that neither the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori–Atta, nor the Central have the answers.

He said the president in a knee jerk reaction is now looking for new managers for the economy, hence the creation of the newly Foreign Exchange (FX) Development Committee, another meaningless initiative to give the impression that they know what they are doing, when clearly they are out of their depth.

Mr Ricketts-Hagan said that the setting up of the FX Development Committee to investigate the chronic depreciation of the cedi, is further evidence that the President sees Dr Bawumia as no longer relevant in the management of the cedi or the economy.

“The FX Development Committee will not come up with anything new about the cedi that we did not already know. It is not the cedi that has failed, it is the government’s economic policies that have failed. Clearly, this shows that the Economic Management Team under Dr Bawumia that has failed.”

Ricketts-Hagan further said that “The man who talked a good game when he was in opposition, has delivered very little since he became Vice President some 3 years ago. The Vice President has talked the talk but he hasn’t been able to walk the talk.”



“The currency he claimed he had arrested and given the keys to the IGP, has broken jail and Dr Bawumia does not know the whereabouts of the cedi. He has not got an economic clue of where it has gone.”

Quoting Dr Bawumia’s infamous phrase that “if your fundamentals are weak your exchange rate will expose you,” he said, Dr Bawumia has been exposed beyond repair by his own economic theory.

“His economic theories about the Ghanaian economy and how he can fix it, have ran out of steam, and the president Nana Akuffo-Addo has found him out. The “Messiah” the President banked his hope on to fix the cedi depreciation and the economy that they claimed was not working, turned out not to have the right tools for the job. The man once described by the President as a gift to Ghana, has now become the gift nobody wants for Christmas. He has therefore been relegated to fix digital addresses and fly drones instead of managing the economy and the Cedi.”