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The thumbs up Akufo-Addo government officials are giving to the Economic Management Team have been described by former Communications Minister, Dr. Omane Boamah as shameful.

“I have heard the government shout over the roof tops that the exchange rate is doing well because it is dropping and I thought we were going to go back to the pre-2016 days where the exchange rate was and to the pre-January 7, 2017 days. They are still looking at 5.1 and they are not ashamed of themselves. You are not ashamed that you post that the exchange rate is doing well because it is at 5.1,” he chided.

Speaking on Radio Gold as a panel member on the 'Alhaji and Alhaji' programme, Dr. Boamah charged the NPP government to take Ghanaians serious by doing something to save the economy and not dance around due to the borrowed money injected into the economy to rescue the cedi from further sinking.

He fumed saying he is “sick and tired” of the continuous Guggisberg economic reference from President Akufo-Addo, and charged that it is time for government to do what it promised it was going to do when given the mandate by Ghanaians to govern. 

“Our governments must confront the status quo, the building blocks that the international economic system has erected which makes it difficult for us to deal with importation by ensuring that we invest in areas that will give us more import substitution. And that is what they promised when they were talking about one district one factory,” he charged.

The former Information and Communications Minister lauded the visionary leadership skills of ex-President John Dramani Mahama for some gains made in the economic sector to curb over-reliance on imported goods.

“Subsequently, between the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture, specific investments were made in the area of poultry, rice and several other areas. We began seeing results; also investments were made in the area of producing sugarcanes and I am referring to the Komenda Sugar Factory which I’m afraid this government is allowing to rot just as they allowed the Aveyime Rice Project to rot,” he hinted.

He added that at the Ministry of Trade with direct supervision of Kojo Twum Boafo, there was a ceramic and tile factory that also came up in the Western Region to cut short the importation of tiles from China and Turkey.

“...thus these specific targeted interventions were made to ensure that with these coming into fruition, the country could reduce importation of tiles from China, Turkey, and also reduce importation of poultry products from the Netherlands and we could reduce importation of rice,” he stressed.