NPP, NDC Must Stop Blame Game On Economy - PPP

Kofi Asamoah-Siaw - PPP National Secretary

Kofi Asamoah-Siaw - PPP National Secretary The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) is highly disappointed with the NPP and Mills-led NDC Administration which have been engaging in blame games at the expense of seeking the welfare of the people.

According to the party, “one way to stop this dangerous game is to expand the political space to allow other political parties to participate in public discussions on important national matters such as the economy and job creation.”

The PPP is the best alternative to the status quo as we have prepared ourselves very well to offer good, implementable ideas and solutions”, a statement signed by Mr Kofi Asamoah-Siaw, National Secretary of the party stated.

According to Mr Asamoah-Siaw, the PPP sounded an alarm in January this year, on the depreciating value of our currency and asked if anyone was listening.

He stated that the trend within the global economy showed a scary situation for Ghana and predicted that the value of the cedi might fall further from the 10 percent predicted earlier by analysts for 2012 to about 15 percent if the government was not proactive with its fiscal policy management.

He also recalled that during the global economic crises when the NPP was in power, the cedi depreciated against the dollar by 25 per cent so there is a fundamental structural problem facing the Ghanaian economy which must be addressed, he stated.

In the view of Mr Asamoah-Siaw, “the GDP growth may be high, but as long as agro-industry, manufacturing, tourism and other areas that can provide jobs remain unsupported, Ghanaian labour will remain unemployed and severely underemployed.”

He said Ghana must find the courage and determination to add value to the raw materials produced in the country and added that the PPP had the will to do what was needed to make this happen.

“Let us not also forget that 2012 is an election year so election-related uncertainty may well continue to hit the exchange rate which will further push the cedi down. The threats to resort to violence exhibited by the NDC and NPP must be checked. No political party must be allowed to implement a win at all cost campaign,” he stated.

He also said political propaganda cannot wish away the fact that at least 40 per cent of Ghanaians were unemployed and in the past 10 years over 1.5 million children have failed the BECE examination. It is, therefore, clear that the unemployment rate in Ghana will exceed 50 per cent.

The party, therefore, called on all Ghanaians to be wide awake and pay attention to what is happening to the economy and not be taken in by all the propaganda and noise on the political front.

“Consistent with the PPP’s good economic management principles, we will bring fiscal discipline into the system and at the same time support our indigenous businesses to ensure that we keep money in our own banking system to be used to support our private sector, when we get the mandate to govern the country after the 2012 elections,” he assured.

“We will bring the economy back home by using the government’s purchasing power to ensure that our local contractors, consultants and industries gain a market at home, which will reduce pressure on the Ghana cedi while creating jobs for our men and women. We will implement with a sense of urgency, the national identification system and promote vigorously, the new pension law to bring the long-term money the private sector needs and inject needed discipline into the system”.

Clearly, Ghana needs the progressive, pragmatic approach of the PPP to keep the value of the cedi and restore human value, Mr Asamoah-Siaw stated.