Finance Minister’s apology not enough – Bokpin

A finance and economics professor at the University of Ghana, Professor Godfred Bokpin, says the recent apology by the Finance Minister, Dr Mohammed Amin Adams, was not enough.

The Minister of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, apologised to Ghanaians for the hardships they are experiencing due to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).

His apology comes after the Assin Central MP, Kennedy Agyapong advised members of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to admit their mistakes in the management of the economy and apologise to Ghanaians.

Prof Bokpin argued that, the apology does not alleviate the country’s ongoing economic difficulties, which he believes could have been avoided with more proactive government measures.

According to him, while the apology was a step in admitting the mistakes, it should be accompanied by concrete actions.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on August 10, he said, “Honourable minister, yes, you have made this apology but I want to believe it is not enough. If this was a government position and has been reflected on carefully, then probably this will come with certain practical steps that government will take.”

“The manner in which it was done clearly takes a lot away from this humility. To the extent that the current minister of finance wasn’t really the architect behind this DDP and all of that. I want to believe that this apology is not properly motivated and it should reflect a government position and a party position.”

iHe said that Ghana’s high fiscal deficit in 2020, worsened by the misuse of COVID-19 funds, which has contributed to the country’s current economic challenges.

“If you go into the details and you see the extent to which we abused the covid and the fiscal deficit that Ghana recorded in 2020, it was one of the highest in the whole of Africa and Ghana could not recover from that excess which took us to the 17th IMF supported programme,” he said.