Thousands of Ghanaians hit the streets on Saturday to protest high cost of living in the country.
The “Kume Preko Loaded” protest is a re-enactment of similar protests launched in the mid-1990s by Nana Akufo-Addo and other leading opposition figures during the Rawlings era.
The protesters want the current president to resign as well as his finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, for presiding over what they describe as the worst economic crisis in the Fourth Republic.
In a televised address on the economy last Sunday night, President Akufo-Addo admitted that the country’s economy was in crisis.
“For us, in Ghana, our reality is that our economy is in great difficulty. The budget drawn for the 2022 fiscal year has been thrown out of gear, disrupting our balance of payments and debt sustainability, and further exposing the structural weaknesses of our economy,” he said.
“We are in a crisis, I do not exaggerate when I say so. I cannot find an example in history when so many malevolent forces have come together at the same time. But, as we have shown in other circumstances, we shall turn this crisis into an opportunity to resolve not just the short-term, urgent problems, but the long-term structural problems that have bedeviled our economy,” the president added
President Akufo-Addo therefore urged Ghanaians to see the decision to go to the International Monetary Fund in this light, adding, “We have gone to the Fund to repair, in the short term, our public finances, and restore our balance of payments, whilst we continue to work on the medium to long-term structural changes that are at the heart of our goal of constructing a resilient, robust Ghanaian economy, and building a Ghana beyond aid.”
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com