Economist at the University of Ghana Business School, Prof. Patrick Asuming has expressed doubt over the financial feasibility of the numerous manifesto promises announced by the flagbearer of the ruling governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
The Associate Professor of Economics says the numerous and ambitious promises are a clear indication that the Vice President and his party have still failed to acknowledge the current economic crises that have necessitated the ongoing IMF bailout.
According to Prof. Asuming, he expected more realistic manifesto promises given the current economic situation. On the contrary, the Economist says he was surprised by the many ambitious promises that came without clear information on how they would be funded.
“We have heard and seen a lot of we will do this and do that. I think what has not been done enough is to acknowledge the times that we are in. We are under an IMF program. The country’s finances are not in good shape, so when you promise that you will do so many things, we expect that you tell us about where the money will come from,” Prof. Asuming told The High Street Journal in an interview on Monday.
Commenting on the promise to cut government expenditure by 3% to GDP, Prof. Asuming questioned the credibility of such a promise alluding that a similar promise was made by the Vice President’s government in 2022 prior to the IMF bailout which was never heeded.
“They said they will cut public expenditure to GDP by 3%. Approximately GHC 30 billion. So, the question is “What are you cutting?” You can’t say you will cut without giving us details and expect that we will believe knowing that in 2022 the government that the Vice President is part of promised before we went to the IMF that they are going to cut discretionary public expenditure by 30% and it didn’t happen,” he argued.
He added “I think that there were a lot of things that were listed [but] I don’t think what I heard took significant cognizance of the difficulties that we are in and the fact that we are even struggling to balance our books.”
