Former Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam has described President John Dramani Mahama’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) as a false representation of the country’s economic situation.
According to him, contrary to the bleak picture the President painted, an honest assessment of the economy would show that it is very healthy.
Addressing the media in Parliament on Monday, Amin Adam, also the Member of Parliament for Karaga, lamented that President Mahama failed to acknowledge the economic turnaround under the Akufo-Addo administration, which was driven by decisive policies and International Monetary Fund (IMF) support.
“One would have appreciated a True State of the Nation that acknowledged the challenges in 2022, the remarkable turnaround in 2023, and the remaining obstacles that require steadfastness. Instead, the President chose propaganda, which will come back to haunt him,” he said.
The former Finance Minister defended the previous government’s handling of the economy, stressing a sharp drop in inflation from 54% at the end of 2022 to 23% by the end of 2023.
He argued that the IMF had an upper band target of 22% inflation for December 2024, meaning that the deviation was marginal, not catastrophic, and argued President Mahama failed to meet an inflation target of 10.1% in 2016, recording 15.4% instead.
On GDP growth, Amin Adam argued that the economy had outperformed expectations. According to him, real GDP growth for the first three quarters of 2024 was 6.4%, far exceeding the IMF target of 4%, stressing, “President Mahama should recall that under his leadership, the economy grew at only 3.4% in 2016.”
He also pointed to Ghana’s trade balance, which ended 2024 with a surplus of 5.9% of GDP, compared to a deficit of 2% under Mahama in 2016. Additionally, the current account balance recorded a surplus of 4.2% of GDP in 2024, a significant improvement over the 3.1% deficit during Mahama’s tenure.
Responding to the concerns over inflation and the depreciation of the cedi, Amin Adam argued that the global economy faced severe disruptions due to COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war, forcing inflation to spike globally.
“In advanced economies, inflation reached 7%, much higher than their usual 1%. Ghana was no exception. That’s why inflation hit 54% in 2022, but through strategic policies, it was reduced to 23% in just one year,” he explained.
He argued that the stability of the cedi seen in early 2025 was not due to any action by the Mahama government but rather the $8.9 billion in reserves left behind by the NPP administration allowing the Bank of Ghana to intervene.
The former Minister also took issue with Mahama’s claim that the financial sector remained weak despite the GH¢29.9 billion spent on the banking cleanup.
According to him, the banking sector is stronger today than before with total assets growing by 33.8% in 2024, deposits increasing by 28.8%, and core liquid assets to short-term liabilities rising by 46.3.
He stressed that the Ghana Stock Exchange’s All Share Index also recorded a remarkable 56.2% growth by the end of 2024.
“An economy with such financial sector strength cannot be described as ‘badly managed,’” he argued.
Amin Adam stressed that the economic gains achieved under the NPP government had positioned Ghana on a strong recovery path and urged the Mahama administration to build on these gains rather than discredit them.
“The real sector, the external sector, and the financial sector are all in good shape. That is the true state of the nation,” he declared.