By Iddi Yire
Accra, Feb 27, GNA – President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday promised Ghanaians to revive Ghana’s economy and reset it on a path of growth and prosperity.
He blamed the previous Akufo-Addo’s administration for the economic woes of the country.
The President gave the assurance in his message of the State of the Nation Address (SONA) to Parliament, which comes just 51 days upon his assumption of Office on January 7.
He used the SONA, which is in conformity of Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, to highlight his administration’s accomplishments, the state of the economy, the Government’s agenda for 2025 and the way forward.
The President said: “I am sad to report that the State of our Nation is not good. Our economy is in crisis, and our people are suffering unprecedented hardships.”
He said the Government would host a National Economic Dialogue on March 3rd and 4th, and that on March 11th, the Minister for Finance, on his behalf, would present the budget estimates for the financial year to this August House.
He said these two events would allow the Government to present the real state of Ghana’s economic crisis to the people.
“Mr Speaker, it is not my style to lament and shift blame when confronted with challenges, as others often do,” President Mahama said.
“My approach is to accept challenges and work hard to resolve them. Indeed, that is precisely what the people of Ghana elected me to do. I have not come here to lament the state of our country, though there is much to lament. I understand why I was elected with such (a) high voter confidence— to solve their problems.”
President Mahama elaborated to the House on how the Government intends to address the problems.
“Yesterday, February 26, 2025, marked exactly 10 years since I stood in this Chamber, at this very spot, to declare my determination to fix Dumsor (erratic power supply outages), a
legacy problem of power shortages. And I fixed it! Yes, I promised to fix it, and I did!,” he said.
“I wish to place firmly on record that from January 2016 until I handed over the administration of this country on January 7, 2017, there was no power rationing or load management in Ghana.
“Mr Speaker, today, inspired by the almighty God and propelled by the massive mandate given me by the good people of Ghana, I am moved to make a similar purposeful and bold declaration.
“That, I, John Dramani Mahama, will fix the economic crisis confronting our country and reset it on a path of growth and prosperity.”
He said, his Government, working with Parliament and every Ghanaian, would solve the challenges because they had developed a plans with the people’s support.
He also reiterated that Ghana’s economy was not in a good shape, citing the indebtedness of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).
The President said it was common knowledge that Ghana’s economy was in dire straits, which was putting it mildly because, after an initial assessment of the books, they had discovered that the nation’s economic problems were much deeper than was publicly known.
“We have inherited a country that is broken on many fronts. The profundities of the challenges are staggering. We are saddled with staggering debts and glaring signs of almost deliberate and, in some cases, criminal mismanagement of our resources,” he said.
He reiterated that not even the restraints of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme were enough for the previous economic managers to exercise prudence in managing our finances.
The President said the previous Government after setting an inflation target of 18 per cent by the end of 2024, the actual rate was 23.8 per cent, significantly exceeding the IMF threshold. He said the Ghana cedi continued its downward slide, losing 19 per cent of its value against the dollar in 2024.
He noted that it had already lost 27.8 per cent in value in 2023, and that in addition to the public debt, which amounts to a staggering GHS 721 billion, several State-Owned Enterprises were also in debt, including ECG, which owes GHS 68 billion.
He said the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) — the hope of cocoa farmers—was also highly indebted.
He said COCOBOD’s balance sheet indicates a total debt of GHS 32.5 billion, of which GHS 9.7 billion was due to be paid at the end of September 2025.
He said in the 2023/2024 crop season, COCOBOD could not supply 333,767 tonnes of cocoa, which it sold at $ 2,600 per tonne; and that as a result, the then management of COCOBOD rolled over these contracts into the 2024/2025 cocoa season.
This, he said implied that for every tonne of cocoa delivered this year in fulfilment of the rolled-over contracts, COCOBOD and the Ghanaian farmer would lose $ 4,000 in revenue.
President Mahama said COCOBOD had been supplied 210,000 tonnes out of the rolled-over contract, resulting in a revenue loss of $ 840 million for both COCOBOD and the Ghanaian farmer.
He said COCOBOD and the Ghanaian farmer would lose another $495 million when the Board finished supplying the remaining rolled-over contracts.
Additionally, cocoa road commitments alone total GHS 21.7 billion, of which only GHS 4.4 billion was included in the total debt of GHS 32.5 billion.
President Mahama said this debt had arisen mainly because of the decision in 2019 and 2020 to award road contracts worth over $1 billion because of the election.
With regards to the energy sector, the President said the sector faced significant financing challenges primarily due to collection and system losses, non-compliance with the Cash Waterfall Mechanism, and legacy debts.
He said the financing shortfall had risen considerably to approximately $2.2 billion or GHS 34 billion for 2025, and urgent measures would be needed to reduce it to sustainable levels and ultimately eliminate it.
He said the financial sector continued to struggle despite the previous government reportedly spending GHS 29.9 billion on the financial sector clean-up exercise to date.
President Mahama said the previous Government also left scanty reserves for debt servicing despite implementing what may be considered the most severe and distressing economic policy in the annals of the Fourth Republic, if not in the entirety of our nation’s history—the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.
“This is in stark contrast to our actions in 2017, before we left office, when we allocated $ 250 million to the Sinking Fund to service debt,” he said.
“While there have been claims that buffers were left for debt repayment, the statement of accounts for the Debt Service Reserve Account, also known as the Sinking Fund, shows a
balance of only $64,000 and GHS 143 million in the dollar and Ghana cedi accounts, respectively.”
He said the repercussions of reckless debt accumulation and economic mismanagement would require extensive work and sacrifice to repair.
He said in the next four years, debt servicing would amount to GHS 280 billion, comprising GHS 150 billion for domestic and GHS 130 billion in external debt servicing.
GNA