For The Crave Of Power, Politicians Will Never Cease To Amaze

Politicians desire to have power and have it throughout eternity, can make them go through amazing lengths to get the will of the people. In most cases what is true would be couched to look a lie and what is a lie would be packaged as the Gospel truth.

Recently, ex-President John Mahama on his campaign trail, got to Tamale and he made very interesting comments while comparing his economic record during his termof office to the economic record today under H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo.

He was very strong in his words and begun by saying, when he left office the Debt-to-GDP was 57% and today it is over 100%, while the truth is that this current administration inherited a Debt-to-GDPof 73.3%from the Mahama administration.

In 2023, under this current administration, Debt-to-GDP of 81.50% was recorded, according to businessday.ng/africa and countryeconomy.com.

H.E. Mahama said he left a budget deficit of 6.6%, meanwhile today, this current administration, is running a budget deficit of 15.0%. In truth the budget deficit in 2016 was 9.3% according to the World Bank and today it is 11.8%.

With cocoa production, ex-President Mahama said at the time of exiting office, the nation recorded 960,000 MT but today the nation is recording, 500,000 MT. Statista.com recorded that Ghana’s cocoa production in 2012 was 897,000 MT and in 2016 it recorded 859,000 MT. In 2017 under the current administration, Ghana’s cocoa production rose to 969,000 MT and it crossed the million-tonne mark to record 1,047,000 MT in 2021 before dipping down to 750,000 MT in 2023.

According to Statista.com, the GDP growth rate was 3.4% in 2016 and not 8.0% as stated by ex-President Mahama. The growth rate shot up to 8.1% in 2017, but in 2023, it recorded 2.9% due to global economic challenges which affected Ghana.

Going on with the economy, during the Mills administration, from 2009 to 2012, Ghana recorded single digit inflation rates for three years from 2010 to 2012. In 2013 under the Mahama administration, inflation shot into the double digits for four years from 2013 to 2016, at 11.67%, 15.49%, 17.15% and 17.46%, respectively.

When the Nana Addo’s administration took over in 2017, inflation went down to 12.37% and from 2018 to 2021, inflation recorded single digits at 9.84%, 7.94%, 9.89% and 9.98%, respectively. Due to the world-wide economic crunch, inflation shot up to 54.1% in 2022and down to 42.19% in 2023. This was largely due to the world-wide economic crunch which was afallout from Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war, as confirmed by the World Bank and IMF.

Nonetheless, this administration has recorded a feat that no government in this country had ever done. It is all about Trade Balance. The Mills administration recorded its lowest trade deficit of – $3.39 bn in 2009. When Mahama took over from Mills, Ghana recorded a higher tradedeficit of -$6.21 bn in 2013. The current administration inherited a trade deficit of -$3.08 bn from 2016. In 2017 the country’s trade deficit reduced to -$1.69 bn, and went further down to -$710 million in 2018 and up to -$1.32 bn in 2019. Then the record was made. In 2020, Ghana recorded the highest trade surplus, ever, of $2.05bn, the first trade surplus since 1982 when Ghana recorded $10 m, surplus. It dropped but remained in the billions with $1.10bn in 2021, rose to $2.87bn in 2022 and dropped slightly to $2.67bn in 2023, according to Bloomberg.

Did H.E. John Dramani Mahama say that his administration never collected any money from Bank of Ghana?

Below are extracts of Bank of Ghana Annual Reports from 2013 to 2016, for Ghanaians to judge:

BoG Report 2013, Paragraph 36. Events After Reporting Date. The Directors have declared a dividend of GH¢400,000,000 subsequent to the reporting date which would be used to offset government indebtedness in the books of the Bank in accordance with Section 6 of the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002 (Act 612).

BoG Report 2014, Paragraph 36. Events after Reporting Date. The directors have declared a dividend of GH¢600,000,000 subsequent to the reporting date which would be used to offset government indebtedness in the books of the Bank in accordance with Section 6 of the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002 (Act 612)

BoG Report 2015, Paragraph 38. Events after Reporting Date. The directors have declared a dividend of GH¢500,000,000 (2014: GH¢600,000,000) subsequent to the reporting date which would be used to offset government indebtedness in the books of the Bank in accordance with Section 6 of the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002 (Act 612).

BoG Report 2016, Paragraph 38. Events after Reporting Date The directors have declared a dividend of GH¢250 million (2015: GH¢500,000,000) subsequent to the reporting date which would be used to offset government indebtedness in the books of the Bank in accordance with Section 6 of the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002 (Act 612).

Every year during his administration, H.E. John Mahama found it necessary to collect the money, Bank of Ghana had rightfully earned, to pay debts the government owed the Bank. It totalled GH¢1.75 billion or $570,271,805.33.

The story seems slightly different when the Nana Addo’s administration took over.

BoG Report 2017, Paragraph 38. Events after Reporting Date. The directors do not recommend transfers into the consolidated fund for the year ended 31 December 2017 (2016: GH¢250 million).

BoG Report 2018, Paragraph 38. Events after Reporting Date. The directors do not recommend transfers into the consolidated fund for the year ended 31 December 2018 (2017: Nil).

BoG Report 2019, Paragraph 38. Events after Reporting Date. The directors have declared a dividend of GH¢250 million (2015: GH¢500,000,000) subsequent to the reporting date which would be used to offset government indebtedness in the books of the Bank in accordance with Section 6 of the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002 (Act 612).

BoG Report 2020, Paragraph 40. Events after Reporting Date. There was no significant event after the report period. However, the presence of COVID 19 requires management to continue to assess the impact of the pandemic on the Banks operations and the economy. There remains considerable uncertainty regarding the Covid-19 situation as shown by the on-going second wave of the spread of the virus in many countries, which means that forecasts can change rapidly. During the year, the Bank conducted an extensive assessment on the impact and has provided information on their assessment as part of the Report of the Directors. Refer to the Report of the Directors (Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on pages 5-7) for further details on COVID-19. The Directors do not recommend transfers into the consolidated fund for the year ended 31 December 2020 (2019: Nil). The Directors are not aware of any other material events that have occurred between the date of the statement of financial position and the date of this report.

BoG Report 2021, Paragraph 40. Events After Reporting Date. There was no significant event after the report period. However, the presence of COVID 19 requires management to continue to assess the impact of the pandemic on the Banks operations and the economy. There remains considerable uncertainty regarding the Covid-19 situation as shown by the on-going second wave of the spread of the virus in many countries, which means that forecasts can change rapidly. During the year, the Bank conducted an extensive assessment on the impact and has provided information on their assessment as part of the Report of the Directors. Refer to the Report of the Directors (Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on pages 5-7) for further details on COVID-19. The Directors do not recommend transfers into the consolidated fund for the year ended 31 December 2020 (2019: Nil). The Directors are not aware of any other material events that have occurred between the date of the statement of financial position and the date of this report.

BoG Report 2022. Paragraph 41. Events after Reporting Date. Government Gold for Oil Programme. The Gold for Oil (G4O) Programme is an initiative of the Government of Ghana to use the existing BOG Domestic Gold Purchase (DGP) programme to provide import finance facility to support the importation of petroleum products into Ghana. The initiative is intended to free up foreign exchange resources to meet petroleum imports of the country thereby reducing pressures on the Bank’s foreign reserves. The programme also seeks to procure petroleum products at very competitive prices through Government-to-Government arrangements. The expectation is that a reduction in foreign exchange pressures, the reduction in premiums charged by international oil traders as well as efficiency gains from the value chain will translate to lower ex-pump prices in the country. Under the programme, all the dore gold produced and exported by companies with licensed small-scale concessions including community mines through PMMC shall be purchased by BOG. The purchased dore gold is then used for the payment of oil supply to Ghana. Payment for the oil supply is to be done using either of two channels: barter trade or broker channel. Currently the Bank uses the Broker Channel for the G4O programme.

Between 2017 and 2022, a period of six years, the New Patriotic Party formed government under H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo, took money from Bank of Ghana’s annual earnings only once. And it was an amount of GH¢250 million or $43,719,287.20 in 2019.

Between these two administrations, who made Bank of Ghana, broke? And who made gains, even in the midst of global economic hardships? Politicians will never cease to amaze.

By Hon. Daniel Dugan

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