President John Mahama and his government have created a ‘kaakaamotobi’ – to wit “scary economy”, Dr. Mahammudu Bawumia has said.

In an interaction with students of the Navrongo Nurses Training College in Navrongo as part of his tour of the Upper East region, the running mate to the New Patriotic Party’s flagbearer said: “The Economy the NDC [and] John Mahama have created is a real scary economy. It is scary if you are a student and worried about getting a job.

It is scary for businessmen in this very high tax economy. It is very scary for people who are borrowing and who are incurring very high-interest rates on their loans. It is very scary for our nurses, it is very scary for our doctors, it is very scary for our teacher-trainees and our teachers.”

“It is in fact what one can describe as a Kaakaamotobi economy. They have scared the living daylight out of all of us.”

Reacting to claims by the Government that he was scaring away foreign investors with his damning assessment of the economy, Dr. Bawumia said if anyone was scaring foreign investors away, then it is the government of Ghana said.

“It is your mismanagement of this economy that resulted in Ghana seeking an IMF bailout. Ghana went for an IMF bailout because it became largely broke and because it had lost policy credibility. That would scare away any foreign investor if you admit you don’t have credibility and have to borrow credibility from the IMF,” he responded.

A Deputy Minister of Finance Cassiel Ato Forson recently accused Dr. Bawumia of deliberately releasing very alarming statements to create unnecessary panic within the business and investment community.

According to Mr. Forson, the negative picture being created by the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana was scaring away investors.

“Most often, Dr. Bawumia and the NPP activists do these things deliberately to throw dust in the eyes of the public. But they must realise the larger implication because investors listening to their comments and the subsequent debate about the economy react accordingly. I urge them to seek clarification first,” Mr. Forson said.

But Dr. Bawumia has said: “I found it very funny when one of the Ministers of Finance said that Dr. Bawumia is scaring away foreign investors. They have scared away domestic investors, teachers, nurses, businessmen, farmers, and fishermen etc. It doesn’t take me to scare away foreign investors. It is your mismanagement that is scaring away foreign investors,” he said.

He stressed that the “mismanagement and incompetence of the current NDC government, which has led to the current economic slump and unprecedented hardships”, is rather scaring away Ghanaians of all walks of life and foreign investors.