Mahama takes on gov’t over recent economic downgrade; calls for national dialogue

Former President John Dramani Mahama wants an immediate national dialogue to tackle Ghana’s worsening fiscal situation, leading to the country’s economic downgrade by international rating agencies.

He particularly blamed the Akufo-Addo government for doing too little to salvage the ailing economy and bring reprieve to suffering Ghanaians.

His comments come on the heels of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) recent downgrade of Ghana’s foreign and local credit ratings from B-B’ to CCC+C with a negative economic outlook.

According to S&P, the downgrade was due to intensifying financing and external pressures on the economy.

In a statement, John Mahama said, “there appears to be no end to the problems with the Ghanaian economy, with the recent downgrade to CCC+/C junk status”.

Before S&P’s downgrade, Fitch had already downgraded Ghana’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘B-‘ from ‘B’ and handed it a negative outlook.

But President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is confident Ghana’s economy will bounce back, despite recent challenges.