Ghana in Focus Special: Analysing the legacy of Nana Akufo Addo's Presidency Part II- Housing, Healthcare, Illegal Mining, Debt restructuring and Power Crises

In this episode of "Ghana in Focus," we delve into the multifaceted legacy of President Nana Akufo-Addo, analyzing his administration's impact on housing, healthcare, mining, debt restructuring and the power crises in Ghana. The episode offers a comprehensive look at the achievements and shortcomings of Akufo-Addo’s presidency.

Housing -  Under Akufo-Addo's administration, the government failed to provide affordable housing, leaving many Ghanaians without proper shelter. The housing deficit is estimated to be between four and five million units. The government's efforts to address this crisis have been insufficient, with many of the newly built properties priced far beyond the reach of the average Ghanaian. Affordable housing remains a contentious issue, with most properties marketed as "affordable" being anything but for the majority of citizens.

Healthcare-  another critical area where Akufo-Addo's administration failed miserably. The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), designed to provide accessible healthcare to all Ghanaians, has fallen short of its goals. The scheme fails to cover severe illnesses such as cancer and kidney diseases, forcing many to pay exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses for treatments. Lack of investment of medical equipment and up-to-date facilities, has created the disturbing trend of healthcare professionals leaving Ghana seeking better opportunities abroad, has further strained the healthcare system. 

illegal small-scale mining, known locally as Galamsey, continues to devastate Ghana's environment despite the president's pledges to combat this menace. The episode explores the complicity of local politicians and Chinese nationals in perpetuating these activities, which has resulted in severe pollution of major water bodies and land erosion resulting in new born babies with severe abnormalities.  For a president who promised to put his presidency on the line in order to tackle this menace, Akufo Addo has FAILED in this endeavour that threatens the security of the country.

Dumsor/ Power outages -  . Frequent power outages have plagued the nation, affecting both ordinary citizens and businesses. Outdated infrastructure, substantial debt owed by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), and unpaid dues to the West African Gas Pipeline are major contributors to the power crisis. Despite recent improvements, the situation remains problematic, impacting economic stability and growth.

Debt restructuring - As a result of callous and reckless borrowing and mismanagement of the economy, Ghana entered to an agreement with the IMF which has as its core Ghana's ability to reduce its huge debt under this government.  This debt restructuring program that the government has b

Chapters

• 0:04 Analyzing President Nana Akufo-Addo's Legacy
• 15:34 The State of Ghana's Healthcare Crisis
• 23:47 Impact of Illegal Mining on Ghana
• 31:34 Impact of Ghana's Economic Mismanagement
• 39:04 The Legacy of Ghana's Power Crisis
• 50:02 Reflections on President Nana Akufo-Addo

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to this week's edition of Ghana in Focus with myself Kwame, ghanaian broadcaster, writer, journalist and entrepreneur. And in this week's edition of Ghana in Focus, it's part two, analysing the legacy of President Nana Akufo-Addo. And so, if you remember, in part one last week we analyzed the legacy because there's a lot to talk about. So we looked about issues to do with the economy, jobs, corruption and agriculture. And in this week's edition of Guardian Focus, part two, looking at the legacy of Nana Ako Akufo Ado, we'll be looking at things like housing, healthcare, small-scale mining, the debt restructuring programme and also the Dumsuk power outages. And also we'll be telling you what, for me, what the best thing that Nana Ado did in his tenure as president. All right, so before we get into the show, uh, just let you know that if you like what you hear, please share to your friends, family, social media networks. We are on youtube, so please subscribe to Ghana Advocating Focus on YouTube, again, we want to get 200 subscribers by the end of the year, so please subscribe to that if you haven't already. And we're also on Spotify, where we want to get at least 800 followers by the end of the year. So far we've got 500. So, again, please go on Spotify. Look out for Ghana Advocating Focus on Spotify. Click the follow button and that means you'll be notified by Spotify every time I upload a new podcast. Alright, so before we get into the issue again, if you want to do business in Ghana buy property, buy land look at different opportunities we do offer a consulting service whereby we can tell them, make a package to suit your needs. So we charge 30 us dollars an hour for an hour consultation, or 20 euro dollars for half an hour breathing. So if you want to uh book your session with myself I've got more than 10 years experience of doing business in ghana. I got land, I've got property, I've got financial instruments in Ghana then please drop me an email and I'll leave you my email address in the business to the show and we can book you in for your consultation appointment. Alright, and if you'd like to donate to the show, you can. So you know, to help us with our cost and also help us continue to bring some fantastic content for you from Ghana and from Africa. You know you can donate as little as three euros a month. That could help us with our costs, all right, so you just go on the website, ghana African Focus website and click on the donate button Africa In Focus website and click on the donate button again in the funnest of the show there's a link that you can click to donate to the Ghana Africa In Focus podcast.

Speaker 1: 3:12

Okay, let's get straight into the podcast analysing the legacy of Nana Akufo-Addo, part 2. And so we're touching on some issues that, for me, you know, are, you could say, indicative of the tenure of Nana Akufo-Addo being President of Ghana. So, as I mentioned last week, touch upon the economy, jobs, the governance of the country under Al-Kufa, adel, agriculture and also corruption. And so in part two, we're going to look at housing, healthcare, gallimuse or illegal mining, the debt exchange program, both internal and external, and also DUMSO, which is the power archers, and I also tell you, from my perspective, the best thing that Nana Akufo-Addo did in his eight years of presidency. All right, so we look at housing. So, again under Nana Akufo-Addo and I mentioned this also in the state of the union address that the president gave earlier in the year you know he's done nothing about housing in Ghana.

Speaker 1: 4:33

Right now, there's a housing shortage of in Ghana of about four, between four and five million housing units. Yeah, there are no, despite the government's um million housing units? Yeah, there are no. Despite the government's um attempts, there have been no real concentrated effort to build affordable homes in ghana. Yeah, I mean affordable homes. You know, this term in ghana is very, very deceptive, because what is affordable to one may not be affordable to someone else, and what is affordable to that one may not be affordable to someone else, and what is affordable to that person may not be affordable to somebody else.

Speaker 1: 5:07

And so, for me, when I'm talking about affordable, I'm talking about a price that the majority of Ghanaians can afford. You know particulars who are working for the government or working in the private sector, in the private sector, and for me you know an affordable property in Ghana for that. For that, you know, not necessarily average Ghanaian, but you could say the average middle class, because there's a lot of Ghanaians who, you know, don't even earn a hundred dollars a month. So a hundred dollars a month, of current exchange rates, is either $1500 a month or £1800 a month. Many Ghanaians there's a lot of them who don't even earn, you know. You know $100 equivalent to $100 a month or £100 a month, definitely not. And so, you know, when we talk about affordable housing.

Speaker 1: 6:04

For me I'm looking about Ghanians who work in the public sector, you know, like, for the governments and other agencies, private sector, ie your banks, your country companies, your estate developers, some of the multinational companies that are in Ghana. Those are the people that I'm talking about, who are working, you know, five days a week for these agencies. That's what I mean by ravaged Ghanaian. I don't mean about, you know, the taxi driver, or you know, the cho-cho driver, or even the market woman, some of whom their take-home pay is very, very, very, very little when you, when you factor in things like rent, transportation, lighting, um, you know, food and other utilities that they have to fork out. So I'm talking basically About the workers.

Speaker 1: 7:06

So for me, what an affordable property would be For the average Lower medical Ghanian Is something in the region of about 25,000 US dollars, because a government worker Can afford that On a mortgage. A Ghanian who works for a media company or a bank or a communications company or one of those mortgage companies that operate in Ghana, those kind of workers, you know, should be able to afford, you know, a city equivalent of $25,000 property, and that is on a mortgage. That's not cash out of that, because many Ghanaians, again of that ilk, haven't got $25,000 to buy cash property, no, right, so that is the impression I'm talking about that I would reasonably be deemed as affordable for many working middle to lower class Ghanaians. And so you know, under this administration, housing for the majority of Ghanaians has been a no-no.

Speaker 1: 8:20

All the property you see built in Ghana, particularly residential properties yeah, most of them in Accra are way, way, way, way priced out as a Ghanaian. You're talking, starting point, 90,000 to 100,000 US dollars. How many Ghanaians who are working for a bank or for a government or for a communications company can afford to buy, even on a mortgage, a 90 to 100,000 US dollar property, let alone some of the properties that you see in Accra? You know Isle-et-Gonne, labourne, cantamance, temma. You know Cassois, you know on the lower side, you know Oywa, you know on the lower side, you know Oyaifa Oyibi. Even going to Adenta, going to, you know, going to Ebride Hills, a lot of these properties are minimum, minimum right, £120,000, that's to the apartment I'm not even talking, even talking about, you know, a two-bedroom house.

Speaker 1: 9:27

And so most of these properties in Ghana that have been built are out of the reach of Ghanaians, the majority of Ghanaians, the only people that are buying these properties, right as, like I said before, some of these politicians who are stealing state monies and are washing that money out by buying real estate or, and, and as well as you know, guineans living in the US or in the UK all parts of Europe, you know that can afford to buy property, you know, and that's even at the low end 150,000, 200,000 in the US dollars, because again, there's properties in Ghana that are 300300,000, $400,000, $500,000, and even the Ghanaians in the UK cannot afford to buy that. So what I'm saying is that housing in Ghana is a major, major, major issue and unfortunately, under this government there's been no attempt to address the housing shortage by, you know, building affordable houses en masse, not just in Accra but in all of the country, in Kumasi, in Temma, in Takrade, in Sunyane, in Tamale, et cetera, whereby the older Ghanaian worker can have a place to call their own. Nothing has been done about that and so many Ghanians, you know, live in this, you know cast into this situation by renting, you know, and then if they've got a bit of money, you know, saved up, they can buy a plot of land and then build small, small but as I told you about two weeks ago. The cost of building materials in Ghana has rocketed in the last two years. So even now there's people who are wanting to build in Ghana are now going to find it hard, such as the astronomical cost of building materials in the last two years. Cement alone has doubled in Ghana in the last two years, making it even more difficult for ordinary lower middle class Ghanaians to actually build property.

Speaker 1: 11:29

And so if government had really got its eye on the ball in terms of housing and trying to address the issue, there would be more housing developments in the last seven years than what we've seen. And as I mentioned before in terms of housing, because we've got this crazy thing about being passed in dollars again, many Ghanians even can't afford to get a mortgage because, believe it or not, mortgages in Ghana are in US dollars. That is so stupid, that is so dumb that we live in Ghana but yet mortgages are priced in US dollars again. You know, squeezing a lot of Guineans, even working. You know government or other sectors of the economy are being squeezed out, and so if government had took an active interest in trying to, you know, support and develop the lower income real estate sector, not just, you know, give it, not just, you know, make it economic viable for the higher end. Then Ghana will not be a situation where it is today, whereby there's a massive housing deficit and a massive issue with housing. That will come back to Ghana if nothing is just about it, and for me, this is one of the worst points of Akufo-Addo governance that he did not address the acute heart disease, not just in Accra, but all over Ghana.

Speaker 1: 13:12

Now we move on to healthcare. The government had a programme called Agenda 111, so Agenda 111, for my understanding, is that they would build more than 111 small, medium-sized hospitals are open down the country Because, again, healthcare is a very, very serious issue in Ghana. Unfortunately, because of the current economic crisis that Ghana is in, the government was not able to get their money together in order to implement this agenda of 111 and burning those uh, small to medium-sized, uh hospitals. That is badly needed in ghana. I mean, there's one hospital that is being built right now. That's that's the la um polyic in Labadi. That was not done by the government and that is now, as I gather, being built across 65 million dollars. Aside from that, you know, I don't see any other major hospital being built, at least in the Mohammed's time the last NDC government, at least from what I know. There are's time the other, the last NDC government, at least from what I know there are three major hospitals that were built, you know, by the last NDC government, and that was the Ridge Hospital, which was a former colonial hospital that was originally built by the British, but Mohammed actually modernised that hospital. Also there's the Bank of Ghana Hospital, which was a public-private initiative between the government of Ghana and the Bank of Ghana, and in actual fact, it's ironic that a lot of these ministers now who are in office now during the COVID, that's where they got treatment in the Bank of Ghana hospital at Kantamins, nankara. So had Muhammad not had the foresight to enter partnership with the Bank of Ghana and build a hospital, it would have left a lot of these Ghanaian MPs probably even dead or having to go to outside to treat themselves for COVID. And so the failure of Nana Akufa Adotachi to build hospitals is anathema on the whole presidency of the man.

Speaker 1: 15:34

And healthcare is not just about building hospitals or clinics, right, it's also about providing affordable healthcare. Many Ghanaians cannot afford basic healthcare. Yeah, because under the so called National Insurance, health Scheme or National Insurance, you know, sorry, the NHIS National Insurance Health Scheme. Many Ghanians still have to pay for their medical care because a lot of illnesses like cancer, like kidney dialysis or kidney diseases, right, that is not covered by the national insurance insurance scheme. And as you've seen recently there's been a massive rise in Guineans with kidney disease. That's because of their lifestyle and again I'll come on to that a bit of health in a minute.

Speaker 1: 16:28

But we've seen a massive, you know, increase in Ghanaians with kidney disease and because of lack of investment in the hospitals. You know, there's not even a decent kidney dialysis machine and the one that is in Accra. You've only got one kidney dialysis machine for about 10,000 patients. That's the ratio of that particular machine, telling you how bad healthcare delivery is in Ghana and so many people have died in Ghana because of, you know, the government's inability to buy simple kidney dialysis machine. That would be to treat Ghanaians. Yeah, because many Ghanaians cannot afford the 1200, I think it's going to 4000 Ghanaian cities at a time to use the kidney dialysis machine that they've got in Accra. And so, you know, lack of investment in our health care system in Ghana under this president needs not to be desired Again on the back of this, I did a podcast earlier in the year or last year about Ghana's nurses leaving Ghana in droves.

Speaker 1: 17:38

This is a direct consequence of the lack of investment that Nana Okufadu, as president of Ghana, has made in the healthcare system of Ghana. Yeah, because a lot of nurses now in Ghana, you know that Nana Okufa Ado, as President of Ghana, has made in the health care system of Ghana. Yeah, because a lot of nurses now in Ghana, you know, don't feel that government is taking their course seriously. So the working conditions that many Ghanaians have to work in, the lack of good pay, yeah, lack of opportunity, yeah, and the lack of proper investment is the reason why many Ghanaian nurses are leaving Ghana for the US, uk, canada, australia and we've seen, in the last two years alone, more than 5,000 nurses have left Ghana in search of greener pastures, because this government under Nana Akufo-Addo has not invested in the healthcare system, as well as not giving doctors and nurses in Ghana a decent salary as well as decent working conditions. Again, to add to the nurses, many Ghanaian doctors have left Ghana also in the last couple of years.

Speaker 1: 18:48

So this tells you the state of healthcare in Ghana, and then, onto that, you know, the COVID pandemic exposed Ghana. If it was not for the funding that Ghana got from the World Bank, from the World Health Organization, ghana would have struggled to deal with COVID. Yeah, because Ghana did not, has not invested and this is not just a co-fido Governments after a Champong Champong was in the 70s All the governments after Champong have failed to invest in adequate health care provision, which is why Ghana would have been exposed during COVID and even was exposed to the degree because, you know, ghana did not have the equipment and other facilities to deal with the Covid. In actual fact, even the vaccine Ghana had to procure those from outside in order to give to citizens. Yeah, showing you that Ghana is not really ready for healthcare, let alone the next pandemic that could hit Ghana, maybe in the next 20 or 30 years. So the failure of Nana Akufo-Addo government to actually invest in healthcare is a very, very, very bad legacy that he and his party we have to live with Now. In terms of healthcare, ghanians themselves need to look after their health. In terms of healthcare, ghanians themselves Need to look after their health Because you know, ghanians have adopted, you know you could say, the western Style Diet.

Speaker 1: 20:17

So many Ghanians now Are not eating, particularly youth. They don't want to eat their traditional foods. They more want to eat, you know, chicken and chips. Kfc is big in Ghana. Burger King is big, particularly in Accra. Pizza now is becoming massive. There's a famous you know pizza chain that is doing well, particularly in Accra and Comasso, and Temer as well. Right, because Ghanaians now are not seeking to eat their traditional foods. Whether it's Akbodeh, whether it's Ban Khoo Okra stew you know Red Red, you know whether it's um Eblu Mblu, whether it's uh you know uh Fufu. Ghanaians are eating too much junk food, particularly youth. And added to this, I love Ghanians do not do exercise. Ie go to a gym bad days a week and work out or go for a run and that kind of thing. Keep yourself healthy and active. Many Ghanians are not doing this.

Speaker 1: 21:22

This is why you could say, even added on to this, that healthcare in Ghana is in a crisis, because many Ghaniansans are dying very young 35, 40, 40, 50. There was even a programme documentary the other day on one of Ghana's main channels, joy News, and they were saying that there's a crisis in Ghana with non-communicable diseases, ncds. So the failure of this government? Because they and their ministers. Non-communicable diseases, ncds yeah. So the failure of this government? Because they and their ministers, they don't use healthcare in Ghana. When they get sick they go to US, london, you know, germany, australia to treat themselves. So a lot of the government ministers don't care about healthcare provision in Ghana because they don't use it, because they go outside to seek medical treatment, and so the failure of the NACUFIDO to invest in Ghana's healthcare is a very, very bad legacy on its behalf.

Speaker 1: 22:21

Now we move on to, you know, small-scale illegal money that we call GANAMSE in the local Akan language. Small-scale illegal mining that we call Ghanamse in the local Akan language. Ghanamse, for me, has been a major failure of this government to deal with. If you recall, I did a podcast last year about why Ghanamse, ie small-scale illegal mining, is a threat to Ghanam's existence. Yeah, it's always been there. Even in my grandfather's time, people were doing small scale mining, but they were not using poison, damage chemicals like they are now, and they were not using heavy machinery that is digging into the ground and spoiling the soil or the nature of the soil. And so, because of this Godim say, and the failure of the government to act, Ghana's water bodies half of them are now being polluted and poisoned because of the dangerous toxic chemicals like mercury, like lead, like aluminium that aluminium that are used to extract the gold by these small scale illegal miners who, many of whom have not got the right licenses to mine and we know many of whom are government aficionados.

Speaker 1: 23:47

There's a famous case in the Asante area that the chairman of the MPP in the Asante region is deeply engaged in Gamsay. This is a claim that is denied, but sources in the know know that. You know, the Asante MPP chairman is deeply involved in Gamsay and the president made it a point that he was prepared to sacrifice his presidency just to have one term in Ghana if it meant him dealing with the menace of illegal small-scale mining Gamsay. And so if President Akufo-Addo was prepared to put his presidency on the line in order to deal with Gamsay, what happened? Where was the commitment, where was the political will to tackle Garam Sey head on? In actual fact, under Okufaido's tenancy or tenor rather, garam Sey has thrived. Thrived to, like I said, the extent that now most of the main water bodies in Ghana are polluted again.

Speaker 1: 25:05

Joy FM, under the award winning Erastus Asaridonko, did a groundbreaking documentary talking about the effects of illegal small-scale mining Ghanemse. He's from Ghana, so he went to many of the mining communities you know, in Wassa, in the Western Region, you know Manson Asante Region in Ghana and also Eastern Region, parts of the Eastern Region, which are the epicenters of this illegal mining. He saw that you know, the water bodies in Ghana are being polluted and he did a sample of the water, some of the water. You could even drink it to your pet, let alone drink it yourself, because the water has turned from a silver colour, which is a natural colour, to dark, brown, brown, even black, and even the Ghana water company is now having problems where it said that because of the pollution caused by these chemicals in the water, it's not even having enough money to treat, to buy chemicals that can be used to treat the water. Such is the scale of the damaging effect of illegal mining in Ghana today.

Speaker 1: 26:31

And so the failure of the Akufo-Addo government to tackle head-on Ghana, must say, is for me a massive legacy. That he has not done that has put a real negative on his ten in office. Because today, even as I'm speaking to you right now, today in ghana, because of the, the effect of this, of the pollutants, of the small-scale miners, yeah, babies have been born today, particularly in the mining areas. Babies have been born with no hands, with no eyes, with no lips, with no anus, with no, you know, with no legs because of the effects of these toxic chemicals, particularly in the water bodies. So these people in the mining communities are drinking poison water, are bathing in poison water, and so these chemicals are in their skin, and the skin is your biggest vessel. So when you're drinking dirty water, poison water, when you're bathing with dirty water poison water that is going to go into your bloodstream and again that causes, you know, kidney damage, liver damage, also cervical damage, you know, and particularly the woman's reproductive system. And this is why the babies are coming out deformed. And yet the government don't care. Yeah, because it doesn't affect them and their families.

Speaker 1: 28:02

Yeah, and also, while we're at this as well, the Chinese are now as well as these Ghanaian politicians and their cronies. The Chinese are now as well as these Ghanaian politicians and their cronies. The Chinese are now massive players in this illegal small-scale mining. The famous case of a Chinese national called Aisha Wan, who came to Ghana and made her fortune because of small-scale mining and she was protected. Yes, her case was never brought to judge, to book, because she was able to entrap with her operations senior police, senior army and senior politicians. And, as such, this, this woman, aisha Wang, escaped justice for helping to pollute Ghana's waters.

Speaker 1: 28:53

And so this illegal small scale mining is a national emergency that Nana Akufo-Addo has failed to address. We hope that the incoming government will adjust this head on because, like I said, half of Ghana's water bodies are poisoned and are polluted, and even the food, the food that has been grown in some of these areas, is dangerous. I wouldn't eat it. It's dangerous food. Some of the yam, the vegetables, the fruits coming out of these areas, particularly some of these mining communities, is poison. Yeah, so this is a very, very serious issue. It's not just a health issue, right, it's a national security issue. Right, because the very existence of Ghana is at stake. Because when you've got no water, when your land is polluted that you can't even grow, even you know, a mango on it, that's when, probably, the Ghanaians are going to wake up and think that they've done something wrong. The government and the citizens, because this illegal small-scale mining has massive, massive consequences, consequences that I don't think many Ghanaians up to, because if they were, there'll be a national outcry as to why this government of Nana Akufo-Addo failed to deliver on his promise to end small-scale illegal mining.

Speaker 1: 30:15

Now we move on to the domestic and external debt recovery program. Now, this is again a failure of the Akufo-Addo government to actually sort out the economy, because under previous governments there was no domestic debt exchange program whereby that would hit people's pensions, whereby that would hit people's savings, whereby that would hit people's government bonds that they bought from the government in order that we yield a grand investment for them, government bonds that they bought from the government in order that we yield, you know, a grand investment for them in their retirement and also to pay things like school fees and medical care. And so many Guyanese do not really because they've not been told by the media. And this I'm not saying, that I'm giving you. You will not hear it anywhere on any Ghanaian media, because here on Ghana In Focus, we tell it like it is. We don't show it like it is, unlike other podcasters, other YouTubers. We tell it like it is. We talk truth to power. Many Ghanaians, because of the way the media has not really informed them about this, don't really understand the severity of the debt exchange program that Ghana under this government of Oku Fado has put Ghana into.

Speaker 1: 31:34

So because of $3 billion $3 billion, not overstanding listeners that last year alone Ghana made more than $11 billion on gold mining Ask yourself, where did the money go? Where did the money go? Where is the money? Where is our share of that 11 billion dollars of gold that was mined in Ghana last year? Gold is at record highs 2,300 dollars plus announced Last year Ghana mined the gold is at record highs $2,300 plus an ounce. Hmm, last year Ghana mined 4.5 million ounces of gold, times by $2,350 an ounce. You do the math. You do the math. We don't get anything for our gold because we've allowed these foreign mining companies to basically loot our gold. Because we've allowed these foreign mining companies to basically loot our gold and take the profits out of the country.

Speaker 1: 32:34

Part blanch, ghana only gets a measly 2% of gold royalties and we use all that money away. And then we go and borrow 3 billion dollars from the IMF and the condition of that was for government to enter a debt restructuring program whereby Ghana would have to restructure its debt, because Ghana owes billions. Right, the? The internet of Ghana is 60 billion US dollars. The ex-inter-index of Ghana is 6 billion dollars, half of which is China, and I'll come to the ex-inter-index in a minute.

Speaker 1: 33:18

So, because of this bad economic management of the economy of Ghana by this Nana Akufo-Addo government, ghana went to the IMF and asked it to get a bailout, and the condition of this was debt restriction. Now, what debt restriction means is that, rather than the government cutting its expenditure say, for example, the school, not the school for the program, the three so-called SHS, where Ghana is pumping billions of Ghana cities into something that, for me, you know needs to be reviewed, and even the IMF have told Ghana to review it, but that's for another subject. So Ghana is pumping all this money into this circle of HSS and yet it is not wanting to cut down this venture. So, rather than the government cutting down this venture, what it is doing it is raping, stealing people's pensions to pay back the money that they've borrowed, also the government bonds. So, under the government organic bond, you could get a yield of between 20 and 25 percent, but now, under this domestic exchange program that the government has bought into, if you are a government bond holder, you are now not going to get between 20 and 30 percent, like you should have got before this crisis, you're not going to get between one and eight percent and that's going to last between now and 2037.

Speaker 1: 35:04

So, in essence, why you know? Basically, the government is stealing your money. That's what it is. The government is stealing the money of the ordering Ghanaians who have bought government bonds in order to pay back the debt that they've just created. And yet the government, you know, is singing and dancing about it as if it's some great achievement. They're okay because they're still chopping, but this will have a profound effect on those Ghanaians, even the upper middle class Ghanaians, who've got government bonds. That'll have profound effects on them because their income is going to be chopped by at least a third, cut by a third. So the income that they should be getting from their government bonds, the government is taking that income that they're getting. Also, people's pensions have been raided as a consequence of this domestic debt exchange program that the government has entered into. So people who have been working in Ghana for 25, 20, 30, some cases, 35 years, thinking that they're going to get a nice pension to retire on, you better think again. You must think again because under this domestic debt exchange program, the government of Ghana is going to raid your pension and some of that pension money is going to be used to pay off the debt that Ghana owes its creditors. And so this domestic debt exchange program is going to have a profound effect for the next 10 years on Ghanians.

Speaker 1: 36:40

Ghanians have not been told this because the media is so partisan in Ghana and also the media does not really do a critical analysis, apart from one or two media houses. Even some of the journalists have been bought and paid for by the current government. That's another story, and so many Guyanese do not really understand the severity of the debt resourcing program. And even on the external debt, that's going to affect Ghana as well and the citizen industry, because Ghana owes, like I said, china $3 billion. Also owes countries like US, uk, france, germany, european Union, et cetera. Again, another debt program.

Speaker 1: 37:27

The older Ghanaian is going to have to pay in high taxes. I told you last. You know, sometime this year I did the programme. You know, talking about the cost of living crisis 25 taxes, yeah, have been put on by this government in the last two years alone. This is why the cost of living crisis in Ghana is so deeply having a deep bite against Ghanaians. Could you believe it? 25 different taxes the e-levy, the COVID levy even though COVID has gone, we're still paying the COVID levy. Heritage levy there's something about emissions levy because of so-called global emissions. All these taxes as part of this debt restructuring program is going to cripple Ghanians, and yet Ghanians are not open arms like they are in Kenya about tax rises and tax hikes. Yeah, so the Ghanians are going to be taxed even more to pay off the external debt that this government has created because of its mismanagement and wanton borrowing that they have done over the last seven to eight years. And this, for me, is a big flaw in the legacy of Nana Akufadu, because he promised to, you know, wake up Ghana's economy from the mess he inherited from the NDC, but yet the economy of Ghana is in a worse shape now than what he inherited in 2017, and so this domestic exchange program is going to kill Ghanaians literally, and they will suffer for years to come.

Speaker 1: 39:04

And so the last thing which has been negative under Nanakufudu is the power outages, called Dumso in the Akan language. So since December last year. It's got a bit better recently, but it's still power outages in the country, but since December last year, there's been, you know, really, really incessant power outages in the country, whereby, in some cases, you know really, really incessant power changes in the country, whereby, in some cases, you know people, whether they're in Accra, temma, takiradi, sognyai, you know Tehchiman Tamale, etc. The experience power changes up to 12 hours, no light. Yeah, and this is because of many, many things, but I'll give you just three examples. So one, the government under kufa has not invested in new technology when it comes to electricity. So I love, the equipment that ghana has today in terms of its distribution of electricity is old equipment that was built in the 60s and 70s hasn't been upgraded. Yeah, and this, and this explains why, in part, you know, ghana is experiencing power outage because of the lack of failure to invest in new infrastructure for the 21st century that could help, you know, uh, elicit power distribution and power generation.

Speaker 1: 40:38

Second reason why there's power issues in ghana is that ghana has not paid its debt, particularly under this government. So the ecg, which is the electricity company of ghana, is owed more than 500 million dollars, us dollars Because, believe it or not, electricity is bought in US dollars per kilowatt hour or per yeah, per kilowatt hour, per kilowatt hour. And so, you know, many government organisations, even the Office of the Presidency have not paid the statistics bill to the ECG. So the ECG is owed billions by governments and also by a lot of these crooked businesses who are tax evading as well, as well as ordinary Ghanaian residents, some of whom are not paying their light bills, and so, because of this, the electricity company of Ghana, ecg, is owed billions and because of this huge debt that ECG owes, is not able to pay its way, particularly to the West African gas pipeline, which is another part of the power equation. The West African gas pipeline is a pipeline that runs through Nigeria, togo, benin, ghana and, I think, la Côte d'Ivoire to supply electricity, and so, you know, ghana owes the West African gas pipeline more than $300 million, and because of this, the Nigerians said that if you don't pay us, we're going to switch off your gas supply.

Speaker 1: 42:22

This is another reason why there's power outages in Ghana, because the government has not paid what it owes the Nigerian government for usage of, you know, the gas, and so Dumso has been a big issue in Ghana since December last year and then has had an impact not just on oil to Ghanaians, but even on businesses. A lot of businesses are falling off because of this power crisis, where there's no electricity for up to 12 hours, they've had to go and buy a generator and, added to that, they've had to buy kerosene in order to fill the generator, which has cost them a lot of money. And, as you know, in the last few months, a lot of big companies, because of this dum-sum and economy crisis, have left Ghana. Companies like BIC, dark and Lovely Society, general Ghana. You know many, many big companies have left Ghana, and so this Dumsot power outage crisis has been a crisis that, again, the government took it out of the ball. Had the government kept it out of the ball, there would be no Domsot and Guineans would not have had to go through 12 hours a day without electricity.

Speaker 1: 43:46

In recent months, I think the last two months, it's come back. The power situation has eased a bit. It's come back. You know, the power situation has eased a bit, but it's still not as it was before December last year. So there are still some power outages, but not as bad as it has been for the majority of this year, and so, again, this is a very, very bad legacy of the government which, by the way, when Mahama and NDC had their power crisis for four years, between 2013 and 2017, this same government was ridiculing Mahama and that they were going to make Domsa a thing of the past, but yet, because of the things I've just said, domsa has come back to haunt them. Yeah, and so you know. Dumso has come back to haunt them, yeah, and so you know. Those are the we talked about housing, healthcare, illegal small-scale mining, the debt exchange program and also power outages. That has put a damper on the tenure of Nanak Akufo's presidency.

Speaker 1: 44:53

However, for me, the best thing that he did in the eight years that he was president was the year of return yeah, 2019, where he did the year of return, where he openly invited. Whether he bought into it or not, that's never here or there, but the actual fact of it or not, that's not. That's never here or there, but the actual fact of the matter is under this government. Yeah, the right of return. The right of return where he led a campaign. He went to America in particular. He also went to parts of the Caribbean like Jamaica and Trinidad, to call on our sisters and brothers to come to Ghana. Ghana is your home. View Trinidad to call on our sisters and brothers to come to Ghana. Ghana is your home. View Ghana as your home and come to Ghana and do business and set up life for yourself. For me, that's the best thing that Akufa was done in his eight years, because it has attracted tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters from the West, ie the Caribbean, from America particularly Canada and the US and then from Europe namely UK, germany, holland to come back to Ghana and see Ghana as their home, see Ghana as an investment opportunity and see Ghana as a place where one can do business. So for me, that has been a big, big plus in the tenure of Nanako Fadu this year of return, whereby our people were invited to come to Ghana to live, work and do business, and many of whom have been able to get citizenship in Ghana and are now bona fide citizens. For me, that's been a great thing of this presidency.

Speaker 1: 46:35

However, all the things that I mentioned in part one are now part two Analyzing, doing the critical analysis that you're not going to hear anywhere on any Ghana media, be it on YouTube, be it on podcasts, be it whatever. This critical analysis that we've done over the past two weeks, analysing, making a critical eye, a critical third eye on the legacy of Nana Kufa Adon is that he has been the worst president, definitely in the Fourth Republic. You know he's not better than Rawlings before Atimos and even the worst of Mah the worst of no, he has been the worst president by far of the fourth republic. The economic indices, you know, bear for himself the highest interest rates in africa under this government. The highest inflation in africa under this government. That that that the domestic debt ratio of more than 100% at its peak, right from this government. You know the billions that it has squandered. This government yeah, this government alone borrowed more than $11 billion on the European market and because of this mismanagement, ghana is now barred from the European market under this president.

Speaker 1: 48:01

You look at the deteriorating system of healthcare under this president in Ghana. Look at the cost of living crisis that has crippled even the upper class in Ghana under this government. You look at the domestic debt exchange program, that one in particular, the domestic debt exchange program, whereby everyone in Ghana is affected by it, whether you're upper class, middle class, low class, everyone is going to be affected by this domestic debt exchange program under this government. And so when we do a critical eye, a critical analysis, the only conclusion to draw is that this has been the worst president in Ghana's history. From Nkrumah to now, nana Akufo-Addo has been the worst president in Ghana's history. Look at all the stats I've just given you out. Bear for yourself.

Speaker 1: 48:55

Ghana is going through a severe economic crisis not seen for at least 45 years under this government, and so you alone, you listeners, you can do your own analysis, but the analysis that we've joined up with via our research department, via what's gone on over the last 8 years, particularly the last 2 years, particularly as a result of the cross-living crisis, and as well as the domestic testing programme, the conclusion that we've joined is that the legacy of Nana Kufa Do government is a very, very bad one and that he's the worst president in Ghana's history themselves and to their standard of living in the last eight years, and vote for a better and brighter future for themselves, their children and their grandchildren, because they owe it to themselves and their children to a better life than what they have now.

Speaker 1: 50:02

And so I thank you very much for listening to this special edition of Ghana, in Focus on Myself, kwame looking at the legacy of Nana Akufo-Addo, part 2, as he prepares to leave office. Thank you very much for listening to this show if you like what you hear appreciate to your friends, family and social media networks. So until next week, we have some more Ghana in Focus for you. It's thank you for myself and from myself and all the crew here at Ghana in Focus. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next week with some more Ghana In Focus.