Nii Moi Thompson Writes: Stop Blaming Ghana’s Economic Mess on Covid and Russia-Ukraine War
Next time any government official blames Ghana’s economic mess on Covid and Ukraine, remind them that Ghana was not the only country affected, and then show them the following:
1. Number of Covid deaths:
. South Africa: 102,595
. Kenya: 5,689
. Ghana: 1,462
. China: 5,272
. Ukraine: 112,518
. Russia: 402,756
2. Inflation by country – July 2024
. South Africa: 5.1%
. Kenya: 4.3%
. Ghana: 21%
. China: 0.5%
. Ukraine: 5.4%
. Russia: 9.1%
Also remind them that they mobilized a total of GHc27 billion, including $2 billion from the IMF in 2020 and 2021, and spent only 40% of the GHc27 billion on Covid. What happened to the rest of the money, why are Ghanaians paying a Covid levy, and why is Ghana back at the IMF for an additional $3 billion?
And then there’s the eurobond (excluding other loans). Of the $15.5 billion borrowed by Ghana since 2007, $11 billion was borrowed between 2018 and 2021.
The government says the money went into infrastructure development. Its own budgets show that that’s a lie.
Infrastructure spending fell short of budgets by an average of 10% per year between 2017 and 2020 (it exceeded budget by about 3% yearly between 2013 and 2016).
And all over the country, communities are protesting against poor roads, crumbling schools and hospitals, and projects abandoned by contractors because they have not been paid.
In short, Covid put no extra pressure on our public finances. We spent less than half of the money mobilised for it. In fact, according to the government, we even exceeded our tax revenue target in 2020.
The causes of the crisis are mismanagement and corruption. Nothing else.
