President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s maiden State of the Nation address delivered on Tuesday February 21 largely mirrored the true state of the nation, Professor Godfred Bokpin, Head of Finance at the University of Ghana Business School, has said.

Mr Akufo-Addo painted a gloomy image of the state of the nation. According to him “the reality of the state of Ghana’s public finances today is quite stark”.

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has criticised the president for failing to paint the true state of the economy as he rather sounded like he was campaigning.

But contributing to the discussion on 505 on Class91.3FM on Tuesday, Prof Bokpin agreed with the president that the economy was not strong.

“[The state of the nation address] largely reflected the true state of the nation,” he told host Emefa Apawu.

“…Beyond what the president said, I think that we knew some of the things even before today. The IMF came here and issued a report. It was not entirely different from what the president has said especially with aspects that relate to the IMF report. So, in that regard, I want to believe that largely it (the SoNA) reflects the state.

“I’m not too sure there is anyone in this country that will say that our economy is really very strong and that we are starting off from a good note. So any objective analysis of our economy today, wherever you look at it from all the sectors of our economy, I don’t think that you will arrive at a conclusion that suggests that our economy is really in a good state.”