NPP Responds to NDC's 'True State of the Nation' Address: Describes Overborrowing Claims As Bogus

• The governing NPP has dismissed the contents of NDC's 'True State of the Nation" address presented on March 20, 2023
• According to NPP party chairman Stephen Ayensu Ntim, the NDC has been spreading falsehood and propaganda, stressing among other things that the NPP under Akufo-Addo has not over-borrowed
• He said at a press conference held on April 4, 2023, that Ghanaians should be happy that Akufo-Addo is in power when Ghana is facing its worst economic test yet because it would have been grave under an NDC administration

The NPP has responded to the opposition NDC’s “True State of the Nation” delivered on March 20, 2023.

The NDC delivered the address to counter what it said were inaccuracies and glossing-over contained in President Nana Akufo-Addo's constitutionally mandated State of the Nation Address delivered in Parliament on March 8, 2023.

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However, at a press conference on April 4, 2023, the governing New Patriotic Party Chairman Stephen Ayesu Ntim said the opposition party dabbled in propaganda and falsehoods.

He said for instance that the NDC seems to have mastered the art of deceiving Ghanaians and making the public and international watchers lose confidence in Ghana.

Stephen Ntim feared this may come back to hurt the country.

“One of the central claims of the NDC's false state of the nation address is that this government has over-borrowed. This is not true, but the NDC keeps repeating it,” the NPP chairman said at a packed presser held at the Alisa Hotel in Accra.

These are the other claims the NPP chairman made to counter the NDC’s “True State of the Nation Address”:

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1. Ghana’s economic crisis would have been worse under an NDC administration

The governing party said Ghanaians should be happy that the country’s current economic challenges caused by Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war are happening under the Nana Akufo-Addo administration.

According to Stephen Ntim, the situation would have been worse under an NDC administration.

2. NPP did not overborrow as the NDC keeps trumpeting

Stephen Ntim told party supporters and the press at the event that the Akufo-Addo administration has not been reckless with its borrowing like the NDC wants Ghanaians to believe.

He said just making an analysis about borrowing by just focusing merely on the volume as the NDC has been doing is inaccurate.

Ntim argued that the best analysis of the public debt stock under a given government is computed using the “rate of accumulation”.

He argued that the rate of debt accumulation under the John Mahama administration in 2016 was over 800%.

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“The NDC inherited a debt stock of GH¢9.7 billion in 2009; by 2016, they increased it to GH¢122 billion, which represents 819% growth in the debt stock,” he said.

He argued further that the debt accumulation under the NDC and Mahama was many times higher than 304% under the current administration.

3. NPP are better managers of the Ghana cedi

Although the NDC said during its ‘True State of the Nation" address that the NPP has poorly managed the Ghana cedi against major trading currencies, Stephen Ntim disagrees.

Akufo-Addo administration has better managed the local currency.

“The NPP managed the cedi, with an average depreciation of 6.8% from 2017 to 2021, compared to the NDC's record of 18% average depreciation from 2013 to 2016,” he said.

Akufo-Addo has ruined Ghana’s economy because he’s clueless - NDC

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh reported in a separate story that NDC party chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketiah presented what he said is the 'true' State of the Nation at an NDC event held on March 20, 2023.

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He said among other things that the true state of Ghana is Nana Akufo-Addo's cluelessness and has plunged the Ghanaian economy into a ditch despite being the luckiest president.

The NDC party chairman also said that the government used only a measly 1.6% of the over GH¢820 billion loans contracted on roads, with the rest swallowed up by consumption.

Source: YEN.com.gh