Former Minister of State at the Finance Abena Osei-Asare, has hit back at President John Mahama’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), accusing him of deliberately ignoring the economic recovery achieved under the previous NPP administration while pushing a narrative of economic collapse.
In her detailed response, the Atiwa East MP, criticised him for presenting what she described as an overly bleak picture of the economy without acknowledging the critical interventions that stabilised it before he took office.
“The NPP has never shied away from acknowledging the economic challenges that Ghana faced, but we took decisive and responsible actions to put the economy back on the path of recovery, culminating in the IMF giving the economy a clean bill of health,” she stated.
According to Ms Osei-Asare, the financial sector was in a much stronger position at the end of the NPP’s tenure than Mahama suggested in his address.
“Depositors’ funds were protected during the financial sector clean-up, preventing the total collapse of the banking industry.
“The banking sector’s total assets rose from GH¢81.2 billion in December 2016 to GH¢367.2 billion in October 2024. Private sector credit increased by 28.8% in 2024, compared to negative 7.5% in 2023, showing strong financial recovery,” she noted.
