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Former President John Mahama has accused the Akufo-Addo government of failing to apply common sense in cleaning up the financial sector, since, in his analysis, the government could have saved the banks and financial institutions that went under with GHS9 billion rather than using GHS22 billion to collapse them.

The flag bearer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), said the path chosen by the government ended up killing more jobs than has ever happened in the fourth republic.

Speaking to traditional and religious leaders in the Ketu North constituency, as part of his campaign tour of the Volta and Oti regions, Mr Mahama noted that there is a lot wrong with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government and called on Ghanaians to vote them out in the December polls.

“More people have lost their jobs under this government than under any government in the fourth republic”, the former President said.

“All those working for microfinance institutions, banks, savings and loans companies that have been closed today, they are all sitting at home.

“Some have started driving taxis, some are riding okada, some are roasting sausages and ‘chichinga’ and others have died and that’s the microfinance institutions alone,” Mr Mahama said.

Touching on how his government would have resolved the banking crisis, Mr Mahama noted that the government should have applied “common sense” by bailing them out, taken equity in those institutions and when they become liquid again, give their equity back to them and take back the government’s money.

“They’ve closed financial institutions. It’s not that the financial institutions didn’t have problems when we were in government, we knew there was a problem but we realised that the problem was a very complicated one and, so, we needed time to resolve it and make sure you don’t throw the baby away with the bathwater…

“We needed GHS9 billion to bail out the financial institutions that they closed down.

“Instead of investing GHS9 billion, and it’s not money they would have been throwing away because you would have injected GHS9 billion, taken equity in those financial institutions and as they become liquid again, you give them back the equity and take your money back, simple!

“That’s why I said the government is common sense. And yet you go and collapse all these financial institutions and now you owe GHS22 billion when you could have used GHS9 billion to solve the problem.

“You create the problem and now you owe GHS22 billion and you assure the people of their money and today they say ‘pay our money and that is another story,’” Mr Mahama bemoaned.  

Delving into the construction section, Mr Mahama said: “If you take the construction companies that were given legitimate contracts by the government and this government came and said: ‘Suspend them all, all of you stop work’ and as of now, work that was done by contractors in 2016 up to now, they’ve not been paid for it and it’s causing financial loss to the state because if you don’t pay their certificate, there is something called delayed interest payment and, so, all those certificates government has refused to pay are accumulating delayed payment interest.

“And, so, somebody’s certificate that was GHS20 million that you should have paid; today, you owe him GHS50 million and we could have used the interest to execute another project.

“So, there is a lot that is wrong with this administration and that is why, come December 7, 2020, we must change them and let them go back and sit at home so that the more competent government can come.”