NPP MP Kwaku Kwarteng Gives Great Advice to Mahama on Economy: “Deploy the Hard Decisions”
- Obuasi West MP Kwaku Kwarteng urged President John Mahama to make bold economic decisions
- He expressed concern over the lack of significant reforms so far in the wage bill and interest payments
- Kwarteng called for urgent action to address long-overdue economic challenges the country is facing
The Obuasi West MP, Kwaku Kwarteng, has urged President John Mahama to make bold economic decisions because he is in his final term.
Kwarteng told Citi News that the Ghanaian president need not fear political consequences for the strong economic decisions he could take.
Source: Facebook
He believes Mahama is uniquely positioned to implement long-overdue economic reforms, being in his final term.
The MP noted that critical expenditure areas such as the wage bill and interest payments remain largely unaddressed.
Kwarteng said he is concerned that the Mahama administration is not on the trajectory of significant reforms.
“I have yet to see any clear change. If you look at the big items in our expenditure profile, the wage bill, interest payments, what are the policy positions or the changes the government is pursuing on these lines?" he remarked.
“If we cannot discuss clear changes, then it is very much business as usual. I take this opportunity to speak to the president and to say, you are not coming back, please deploy the hard decisions that this country has been needing for so long."
In comments to YEN.com.gh, Samson Asaki Awingobit, the Executive Secretary of the Importers and Exporters Association, held that the government is already on the right track.
He cited increased economic activity during the Christmas holidays as his reasoning.
"It was left with small, and we would have recorded a stampede at Accra and Makola market during Christmas. What it means is that people came out to buy goods, to buy dresses, to buy foodstuffs. It is as a result of prudent economic management."
Ghana is coming off a 2025 with strong macroeconomic indicators.
After inheriting an economy weighed down by inflation above 23%, interest rates north of 30%, and a sharply depreciating cedi, the Mahama administration entered 2026 with strong goodwill.
The inflation rate reduced for the 12th consecutive month, according to a post on Facebook by the Ghana Statistical Service, falling to 5.4% year on year in December 2025 from 6.3% in November.
Source: Getty Images
Treasury bill rates plunged from over 30% at end-2024 to about 11% in 2025.
For the first time in decades, the cedi recorded an annual appreciation against all major currencies, including 40.7% against the US dollar.
Trade balance posted a surplus of US$8.5 billion by the end of October 2025, up from US$2.8 billion a year earlier.
Kwarteng's criticism of the Akufo-Addo administration
Kwarteng developed a reputation as one of the relatively objective figures in the NPP under Akufo-Addo and did not hold back his criticism.
As the Chairman of Parliament’s Economy Committee in 2024, he likened Ghana’s economic management to a Ponzi scheme.
In an opinion piece titled 'To break the eight, we must break the norm', 3News reported that he blamed the prevailing economic hardships on decades of bad politics and economic mismanagement.
Kwarteng later stressed that his critique was not an attack on the administration at the time.
Kwaku Kwarteng backs Kennedy Agyapong
Keeping with his criticism of the Akufo-Addo administration, YEN.com.gh reported that Kwarteng is part of the finance and economy team on Kennedy Agyapong's NPP flagbearer bid, which is taking on Dr Mahamudu Bawumia.
Other prominent members of Agyapong's team are former Deputy Finance Minister Abena Osei Asare, Dr Stephen Amoah, the MP for Nhyiaeso and former Deputy Finance Minister, and Dr Alex Ampaabeng, a fiscal policy expert.
Proofreading by Bruce Douglas, copy editor at YEN.com.gh.
Source: YEN.com.gh
