President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has thrown his fierce support behind Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta amidst unending calls for a ministerial reshuffle.
Speaking on the first day of his Central Regional tour on Friday, September 2nd 2022, the President said he is not going to succumb to calls for a reshuffle just on a whim but would actually do so when he sees the need for it.
Akufo-Addo said Ofori-Atta’s performance prior to the pandemic was exceptional, blaming the recent challenges in the economy on the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said his government inherited an IMF programme from the NDC which Ofori-Atta brilliantly navigated out of.
“This same Finance Minister who people are calling for his blood is the very man who took us very successfully out of the IMF programme and helped us produce the 7 percent rates of growth that we have before the COVID.
“I believe that he has the same determination to work us out of this crisis as he showed at the beginning of our government,” the president said.
Akufo-Addo added on the subject of a reshuffle: “When I am satisfied or someone is doing his work well or not doing his work well, I will act on it. If I am satisfied that the output is still strong, I will know what to do,”
There have been mounting calls for the Finance Minister to be fired in a ministerial reshuffle amidst harsh economic conditions in the country with seemingly no end in sight.
Whilst the Ghana Cedi consistently depreciates against the US dollar at a fast rate, inflation is also on the rise with the cost of living also on the high.
These factors were amongst a list of considerations which compelled Ghana to seek assistance from the IMF on July 1, 2022.
In a statement by the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the move to go to the IMF is to help the global lender assist government in implementing some economic recovery programs.
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com