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Investigative Journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, has posited that the current economic crisis Ghana is experiencing is borne out of corruption and not the official reasons the government has alluded to.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his appointees have pointed to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war as the main drivers of an economic downturn.

Manasseh, speaking at an anti-corruption summit held over the weekend in the Volta Region, said it was time for Africans to stop externalizing our challenges.

“If we are to progress as a people, we should begin to now take responsibility for ourselves and stop blaming the white man. That as a people when we look at our economic crisis, corruption is the number one cause of our economic crisis.

“Those telling us the war in Ukraine and COVID-19, it is not true, it is corruption. COVID-19 was just an opportunity for some politicians to make money,” he said.

The event he spoke at was the maiden anti-corruption summit held by the Asogli State led by Togbe Afede XVI. The summit is to become a part of the annual Te Za – or the Yam festival.

Galloping inflation last pegged at over 31%, and a depreciating cedi has become two main pointers of the economic crisis that has triggered a general rise in the cost of living.

Government has since turned to the International Monetary Fund, IMF, for an economic recovery programme to support the economy.