The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has given assurance that the government is on the path to rescue the ailing economy to bring relief to the suffering masses.
It admitted that the Ghanaian economy was in a difficulty but urged Ghanaians in general and the youth to have confidence in the government to stabilise and restore it to normalcy.
Mr Richard Takyi Mensah, the Central Regional Secretary of NPP, speaking at the launch of the party’s youth wing in the Ekumfi Constituency, said the President recognised the hardships and appealed to Ghanaians to bear with the government.
“Times are hard, we are in crisis, but we are working hard to bring the economy back to life. The President accepts that we are in difficult times; we know Ghanaians are suffering but everything will be alright,” he assured.
Mr Takyi Mensah maintained that the crisis was not peculiar to Ghana, stressing that majority of the factors that had sent the economy reeling were external.
“Even the developed economies are struggling. Some of the things are simply beyond us; we don’t have control over them. For instance, petrol prices are high everywhere and, in some places, petrol is scarce,” he said.
He urged the youth of the party to be proud and not entertain the thoughts of defecting to any other party but muster courage to explain the current situation to their counterparts.
“The NPP Government has been exceptional in the Central Region since 2017. We performed exceptionally well and so you have to be proud as a member. The worse state of NPP is better than the best of the National Democratic Congress (NDC),” Mr Mensah added.
Mr James Korsah-Brown, Head of Financial Advisory, State Interest and Governance Authority, rejected claims that the crisis were a result of government’s bad policies and mismanagement of State resources.
Instead, he insisted the economy was a victim of merciless external shocks such as COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war which had sent the prices of petroleum products skyrocketing globally.
“During COVID-19, all those revenues we used to protect lives could have been used to construct roads and build factories.
“We spent more than 15 billion Cedis and interestingly, you need just about 10 million Ghana Cedis to build a factory and so we could have planted factories across every constituency in this country,” he said.
Mr Korsah-Brown noted that the NPP government had been clean with the management of the State’s resources, adding that “we will reorient the position of this economy to make sure that it is well placed.”
Nana Ansah, the NPP Constituency Youth Organiser for Ekumfi, who spearheaded the creation of the youth wing said it was part of efforts to take back the Ekumfi Parliamentary seat from the NDC and win the 2024 elections.
“As a youth organiser, this is my first major project that you tasked me to do and with the support of my lieutenants, we have executed it well. The real job now is for us to hit the ground running immediately because 2024 will not be an easy battle,” he said.
Mr Albert Tetteh-Entsie, a chartered tax accountant and member of the party, stressed the need to train and empower the youth to be independent to accelerate the development of the country.
He maintained that youth was the backbone of every nation and that if they were neglected and deprived of the necessary resources, the country would be destined for failure.
He said the youth must be equipped with entrepreneurial skills to enable them create jobs and not job seekers to go after non-existent jobs.
“Every successful person depends on entrepreneurship. If you train a child for employment and when there is no employment, what does the child do? So, entrepreneurship is the key,” he said.
Mr Tetteh-Entsie said his motivation for joining the Ekumfi NPP Youth Wing was to support, empower, train and equip them with the necessary education to have a sustainable future.
“It is all about empowerment. We will train and empower them so that when we are not there, they will support their families, constituency and the nation.
“I will support them with all the necessary resources that I can for them to achieve their goals in life,” he indicated.