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Former President John Dramani Mahama says the inability of the government to pay contractors is having a negative effect on many sectors of the economy.

He said the his government invested heavily in public works by paying contractors and government suppliers, thereby increasing money circulation in the local economy.

However, he observed same cannot be said of the Akufo-Addo government.

Addressing NDC delegates at Nhyiaeso in the Ashanti Region as part of his four-day flagbearership campaign tour, Mr. Mahama questioned the government for refusing to honour its financial obligations to contractors, despite owing them huge sums of money.

Referencing an allegation by the immediate-past President of the Ghana Football Association, Mr Kwasi Nyantakyi, in the famous Number 12 investigative documentary that the Akufo-Addo government will make NDC contractors money rot, Mr Mahama said that statement by the good friend of President Akufo-Addo cannot be taken lightly, particularly as the government continues not to pay some contractors.

“You owe contractors almost 5 billion and say you will not pay. These contractors also take loans from banks, so if you do not pay them, they also do not get money to pay the banks, and by the time you realize, all these banks have collapsed,” John Mahama said.

The former President noted that the decision by the NPP government not to pay the contractors have led to thousands of people losing their jobs in the construction sector and has also negatively affected the banking industry.

Mr. Mahama claimed contractors have had to lay off most of their workers because they have not been paid by government.

He said the NPP government has no solution to Ghana’s problems, and that Ghanaians are now looking up to the NDC to work hard to win the 2020 elections and save them from the economic hardship inflicted by the government’s policies.