Former Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament for Karaga, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, says the economic difficulties Ghana experienced under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration were driven by external shocks beyond the control of government, and not by the former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
According to him, claims that the economy crumbled under Dr. Bawumia’s leadership do not account for global crises that severely affected Ghana’s economy.
He made these comments in an interview on Joy News as monitored by NewsDesksGH on January 7, where he came to speak as a member of Dr. Bawumia’s campaign team.
“The economy crumbled because there were factors beyond our control. Bawumia didn’t bring Covid, Bawumia didn’t impose the Russia-Ukraine war,” he said.
Dr. Amin Adam explained that while governments can put measures in place to manage economic shocks, some global events are simply beyond the control of national authorities.
“When you are running a country, there are exogenous factors that are beyond control. You can manage them to some level but you cannot have full control over them,” he stated.
He noted that Ghana’s decision to enter an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme was informed by the need to build buffers against such global crises.
“That was why when we started the IMF programme, the IMF insisted that we should build the international reserves of the country so that we can use it to cushion ourselves when we have crisis,” Dr. Amin Adam explained.
Providing further context, the former Finance Minister said Ghana’s reserves, which had been built up prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, were heavily depleted as the country relied on them to manage the crisis.
“Reserves that we had built so much before COVID, as a result of COVID, we had to rely on the reserves and the reserves depleted to the extent that by the end of 2022 we were running below three months of impulse buy,” he said.
He argued that despite the challenges, the former Vice President introduced key interventions to stabilise the economy, including the domestic gold purchase programme.
“And so it wasn’t Bawumia who caused it. But what did Bawumia do to help us come out of the recovery. The domestic gold purchase programme was introduced, and that helped a lot in bringing us to the recovery levels,” he said.
He added that by the time the New Patriotic Party administration left office, economic growth had rebounded significantly.
He noted that by the time they left government, the economy was growing at 5.7%.
“How can you say that economy crumbled? We faced economic difficulties, we were in crisis which were not caused by us, but we implemented policies,” Dr. Amin Adam said.
The NPP will hold its flagbearer elections on January 31, 2026. Candidates are Dr Mahamudu Bawumia,
Kennedy Ohene Agyapong,
Dr Bryan Acheampong,
Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, and
Kwabena Agyei Agyepong.
