Flagbearer aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bryan Acheampong, has blamed fellow contender and 2024 flagbearer Dr Mahamudu Bawumia for the Cedi’s abysmal performance under the previous government.
The former Food and Agriculture Minister, Dr Bryan Acheampong says Dr Bawumia was introduced into the political limelight to primarily fix the economy.
Instead of doing what he was brought to do, he said the former Vice President left the Cedi in tatters as at January 2025. The currency according to him went as far as GHS17 leaving the business community and the ordinary Ghanaians in a poorer state.
Marveled, he said, Dr Bawumia could not fix the national currency’s poor performance against the US dollar, which could have made winning the December election the trump card. Despite picking at it at GHS14 earlier in the year, the current government which did not have any acclaimed economist tasked to manage the Cedi, has managed to reverse the downward trend and it is now hovering around GHS10.
The national currency was announced by Bloomberg as the fastest currency in the world a few months ago.
Similarly, the former Minister expressed shock that, officials the Office of the former Vice President Office which was in-charge of the Nation Builder Corp (NaBCo) could not work to pay beneficiaries numbering 100, 000 their monthly allowances.
Speaking to delegates in the Kwadaso constituency in the Ashanti Region, the Abetifi constituency Member of Parliament (MP) also chastised his own administration for it inability to pay pensioners and investors who against their wish were given hair cut as part of government Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
“Akufo-Addo said he was bringing a gentleman to fix the Cedi so that there will be relief. We took the dollar from 4, by the time we were booted out of government the dollar was 17. You were given a home match, take the economy, run it and win the election for yourself but we took the Cedi from 4 to 17. People queued at the Finance Ministry insisting that we give them their investments sadly we were sacked”, he said.
As a Minister, some party members and officials accused him for not making free fertilizer available to party members during the crop season. They had blamed him for the short in votes in some areas in the country.
But reacting to this accusation, he said this was just a propaganda because their assertion makes no sense. According to him, the party lost massive votes in areas where there is no farming activities and so wondered how supply of fertilizer could have turned their fortune of the NPP.
“They said fertilizer was going to rescue us, When we lost votes at Subin is that where we grow maize to lose votes there? Here Kwadaso do we grow maize here to lose votes? When we lost over 20, 000 do we grow maize at Circle [Kwame Nkrumah Interchange]. That propaganda won’t work, let’s put it aside. Kwadaso constituency is a matured constituency, there are a lot we know about but we cannot say on such platforms but as we are here we know the things that made us lose the election”, Dr Acheampong said to the charged delegates.
He spoke vehemently against repeating candidate in the 2028 general election and electing another contender Ken Agyapong whose utterances in the past he said cost the party. The self-acclaimed NPP financier said he is the only contender who can bring unity, resources and discipline to the NPP.
“If we repeat candidate it will not help us. If we go for the other one too….we know how his show down cost us. I am the only one that can unite the party, I am the one to ensure discipline, I am the one that can mobilize resources to the polling stations and when we come into power I will ensure your dream comes to light and I will govern in God’s name”.
By Gifty Boateng