Ghana's economy is being run like a Ponzi scheme - Kwaku Kwarteng laments

Kwaku Kwarteng, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Obuasi West in the Ashanti region and immediate past chairman of Parliament's Finance Committee has attributed Ghana’s economic crisis to decades of poor political and economic management by successive governments. In a strongly worded statement issued on Thursday, 25th July, titled "To break the eight, we must first break the norm", the New Patriotic Party lawmaker argued that Ghana’s economy has been run like a Ponzi scheme.

Kwarteng elaborated on his concerns in an opinion piece, emphasising that the nation’s current economic woes are the cumulative result of decades of bad politics and economic mismanagement.

“The economic problems Ghana is facing today, at both the national level and in households, are also the cumulative effects of many decades, spanning different governments, of the bad politics and economic mismanagement that have characterised the governance of our country,” he stated.

Since gaining independence, Ghana has persistently overspent its means and borrowed heavily to finance this overspending. Kwarteng highlighted that many of these expenditures are poorly prioritised, contributing to the nation’s economic instability.

“We always offer higher interest to lenders, borrow more, use a part to repay previous debts, and the rest to pay for the current year’s overspending. So, we have been running our country’s economy like a Ponzi scheme. The economy is struggling today because lenders are now refusing to lend to us. It is just like a Ponzi scheme going into crisis once people stop depositing their monies with them,” he remarked.

Kwarteng urged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to provide visionary leadership to rescue Ghana from its economic challenges if they hope to break the eight-year electoral cycle.

“The NPP must acknowledge past and present failures of the political class and break away from the norm of labelling all politicians as corrupt. We need comprehensive and far-reaching reforms to address decades of poor governance and economic mismanagement,” Kwarteng asserted.

He stressed that the NPP must convince voters of their commitment to resolving the country’s problems and demonstrate a willingness to persist despite challenges.

“To break the eight, we must first break that norm by acknowledging the past and present failures of the political class to provide the kind of quality leadership required to avert the mess in which we find our country today,” Kwarteng stated.

He called for the adoption of deep and far-reaching reforms to address the long-standing issues of bad politics and economic mismanagement. He believes that if the NPP sets a good example by acknowledging the country’s challenges, taking responsibility for its mistakes, and implementing meaningful changes, breaking the eight-year cycle will follow naturally.

“Once we lead by example, we can say with integrity to our people that we are sinking in a common boat and call all Ghanaians to duty. As a political party, if we sincerely believe and can demonstrate our faithfulness to these commitments, breaking the eight will follow naturally,” he declared.

Kwarteng also addressed public concerns about the spending habits of politicians, urging for transparency and an overhaul of the corrupt public procurement regime inherited from previous governments.

“We must address concerns about how much of our national resources we spend on ourselves as politicians and take steps to overhaul the corrupt public procurement regime we inherited from previous governments and have continued to live with,” he concluded.

Kwarteng’s statement has sparked significant discussion, with many Ghanaians agreeing with him while others disagree, insisting that the incumbent government must take full responsibility for the current economic woes of the country.