Seth Terkper, a former finance minister says the NPP government could have managed the country’s economy better than it has done.
Terkper said with the kind of resources available to the government he believed the economy should have been well managed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking with Kwaku Nhyira-Addo on the Asaase Breakfast Show Thursday (10 February), he said, “Definitely [it could have been better], coming in 2017, the first obvious one was the additional oil fields …crude oil prices recover that’s a bonanza; which should have been managed well. From about 70,000 barrels within two years to nearly 200,000 barrels with an additional increase. Could we have put money into the buffers that are dependent…the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA)…so could it have been better? Definitely.”
He said in three years, the current NPP administration had received more revenue from the country’s oil than the past NDC administration under the late Atta-Mills and John Mahama put together.
Terkper said the government should have listened to the country’s academics when they started sounding the alarm bells on the country’s debt to GDP ratio hitting unsustainable levels.
“We did not need others to tell us that our debt was hitting 80%, we had people inwards telling us … our academics and I would wish that they are allowed to speak so they can prove their points,” he said.
