Former president John Dramani Mahama has cautioned Ghanaians not to lay their fortunes on the continued pledges made by the governing New Patriotic Party to revive the economy.

According to him, the Akufo-Addo Bawumia administration cannot restore the country’s economic fortunes, especially with just a year and a half left on its current mandate in power.

Addressing party delegates in the Wa East constituency in the Upper West Region, John Mahama opined that the NPP has offered nothing new or innovative to Ghanaians despite being in power for almost seven years.

He however advised citizens not to expect any economic miracles from the NPP as he believes they are only running on borrowed time to leave power in 2024.

“We have experienced NDC’s administration- after Professor John Evans Atta Mills, I took over from him making it 8 years. And we have experienced NPP for almost 7 years. They are left with one and a half years more, no miracle is going to happen.

What they have done is all that they can do, they are not going to add anything to it. So, anybody thinking that there will be a miracle is just tickling himself and dreaming. What you have is all there is, there’s going to be nothing more,” the former president is quoted by citinewsroom.com.

After enduring fiscal pressures and general vulnerabilities for years, Ghana’s economic challenges worsened from 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic collapsed growth and spiked expenditures.

According to the government, the situation became dire following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

In addition to the economic crisis, the international capital market was closed to the country in 2021 on the back of unsustainable debt levels and dwindling reserves – forcing the government back to the International Monetary Fund in July last year for a 17th bailout request on July 1, 2022.

Although a staff-level agreement (SLA) has been secured in December 2022, the final approval is still pending as external debt restructuring and financial assurances from the country’s bilateral creditors, which are to precede the Executive Board approval, drag.

MA/FNOQ