60:40 Economy – Minority Leader Jabs Govt Over Corruption

The Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has ridiculed the government’s management of the economy, labelling it a “60:40 regime” in a scathing critique of the 2025 Mid-Year Budget Review, which he said exposes deep-rooted corruption, hypocrisy, and mismanagement within the NDC administration.

Wrapping up the Minority’s debate on the budget in Parliament, Mr. Afenyo-Markin said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration had earned itself a street tag of “60:40” – a reference to both the government’s handling of corruption-related prosecutions and the shady deals allegedly characterising public transactions under the current regime.

He cited the discontinuation of criminal proceedings against Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, former Finance Minister under the NDC, as an example. The case, formally titled The Republic v. Kwabena Duffuor & 7 Others (CR/0248/2020), was a key part of the broader financial sector clean-up exercise initiated by the State in 2018.

According to the Deputy Attorney-General’s press release, the Office of the Attorney-General, in collaboration with agencies such as the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), set a 60% recovery threshold of losses as a condition for reconsidering prosecution in select cases.

The Minority declared, “Mr. Speaker, 60:40 is your new name. That’s what you’re called on the streets of Accra. ‘Give me 60, take 40’ – that’s the economy you’re running.

He pointed to what he described as the government’s tacit legitimisation of illegal mining and the rise of underhanded dealings, especially in the gold sector.

He accused the government of using the Ghana Gold Board as a smokescreen to facilitate and promote galamsey rather than combat it. “Today, the Gold Board is no longer about regulation. It is encouraging galamsey under the guise of buying gold,” he added.

Mr. Afenyo-Markin’s “60:40” jab was framed within a broader attack on what he described as the government’s failure to ensure transparency and accountability.

According to him, state funds are being siphoned off through bloated contracts, manipulated procurement processes, and politically connected middlemen.

“This is no longer a matter of incompetence. It is institutionalised rent-seeking. And the 60:40 formula has become the symbol of the economic order—where corruption is baked into the very cost of doing business,” he stressed.

He further described the mid-year budget as an exercise in dishonesty, accusing the government of falsely claiming credit for macroeconomic stability and debt reduction achieved through painful reforms initiated by the previous NPP administration.

“The Finance Minister claims our debt-to-GDP ratio has dropped, but the reality is that no significant portion of our debt has been repaid. The so-called improvement is just statistical cosmetics, made possible by debt restructuring and currency gains the NPP administration put in motion,” Mr. Afenyo-Markin explained.

On youth unemployment, the Minority Leader slammed the government’s job creation strategy, calling the GH¢0.5 billion allocated for employment initiatives “a pittance and a slap in the face of over three million jobless youth.”

“There is a direct link between joblessness and the rise in insecurity and galamsey. When you leave young people with no hope, they turn to illegality for survival. That is the danger of this 60:40 economy,” he warned.

He also criticised the government’s abandonment of key social and infrastructure initiatives such as Agenda 111 and Planting for Food and Jobs, saying the neglect of these programmes had left communities without access to healthcare and food security.

Turning to road safety, Mr. Afenyo-Markin cited over 1,500 road-related deaths this year and blamed the carnage on the government’s refusal to pay contractors. “Every pothole is a death trap. Every accident bears this government’s fingerprints,” he charged.

In a final rebuke, the Minority Leader accused the government of hypocrisy – vilifying the previous administration for emergency spending during the COVID-19 pandemic, while now benefiting from the very reforms the NPP undertook at great political cost.

“We took the heat for fixing the mess. You’re now enjoying the benefits and taking credit. But the people see through the deception. You are the true apostles of hypocrisy, and the 60:40 label is your legacy,” he concluded.

Mr. Afenyo-Markin pledged that the Minority would continue to expose what he called “a grand economic heist disguised as governance,” and push for transparency, equity, and real development.