Duffuor Admits Finance Minister’s Job Is Tough But Says Ofori-Atta, Bawumia And Others Have Failed

• Dr Kwabena Duffuor has said the fact that managing an economy is a genuinely difficult job does not absolve finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta from his poor management of the Ghanaian economy
• However, he told journalists on Monday, February 20, 2023, that the finance minister should not be the only person taking the flak for the current economic crisis but the entire Economic Management Team
• The NDC flagbearer aspirant wants the entire team to be dissolved for incompetence, stressing that the team won't be able to solve the economic crisis it created in the first place

Dr Kwabena Duffuor has said while the job of managing an economy is not easy, the current managers of the economy led by vice president Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta have failed.

Dr Duffuor, a former finance minister and Governor of the Bank of Ghana, told journalists at a media event attended by YEN.com.gh on Monday, February 20, 2023, that to excel at managing an economy, the people in charge, especially the finance minister, must have a good grounding in political economy.

Read also

"You deny pensioners their money and quote the Bible" - Adongo slams Ofori-Atta in video

Putting across his views about the current finance minister and the numerous calls for him to be fired over the current debilitating financial and economic crisis, he said Ken Ofori-Atta is not the only one who has failed to live up to expectations.

"Being a good finance economist won't make you a good finance minister. I was lucky because my president [the late John Evans Atta Mills], was head of the IRS for many years, so he we understood each other.

"I had been a Governor of the Bank of Ghana and studied public finance so the two of us were a perfect pair. But currently, one is a lawyer, the other is an investment banker. It is not only [Ofori-Atta] who must go. The whole economic management team must be dissolved," Dr Duffuor said at the event organised at the head office of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

Read also

28-year-old Ghanaian law student declares intention to run as parliamentary aspirant

Dr Duffuor scores low marks for Economic Management Team

Dr Duffuor, described by political watchers as one of the forerunners of the upcoming presidential primaries of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in May this year, said the current economic crisis is the fault of the Economic Management Team.

The team is led by vice president Dr Bawumia and is expected to take critical decisions on economic management.

According to Dr Duffuor because of the current high indebtedness and its associated problems like unprecedented inflation and high cost of living and doing business has happened under the current team, they must all be removed.

"The current economic management team must be dissolved. The same level of consciousness that caused the problem cannot solve it," Dr Duffuor stressed.

Here are the members of Akufo-Addo's Economic Management Team

Shortly after president Nana Akufo-Addo was inaugurated as president, YEN.com.gh reported that he has put together a powerful 11-member team to help turn the economic fortunes of the country around.

Read also

CEO OF Dentsu Ghana Sworn In As 9th President Of Advertising Association Of Ghana

Members of the team are as follows:

1. Mahamudu Bawumia (Chairman)

2. Nana Yaw Osafo-Marfo

3. Dr. Mark Asibbey Yeboah

4. Prof. Gyan Baffour

5. Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei

6. Hon. Kwaku Agyeman Manu

7. Prof. Ernest Aryeetey (former VC Legon)

8. Ken Ofori Atta

9. Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku

10. Kwaku Kwarteng, and

11. Dr. Paul Acquah.

Source: YEN.com.gh