The Ashanti Regional Chairman for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Antwi-Boasiako has schooled former President John Mahama on reasons the dollar is doing well against currencies such the euros and the cedis.
Currently in Europe, the euro has fallen below parity with the dollar, diving to its lowest level in 20 years and ending a one-to-one exchange rate with the U.S. currency.
Mr. Antwi-Boasiako popularly known as Chairman Wontumi admitted that he feels embarrassed that Mr. John Mahama left out external factors in his analysis before deciding to taunt Vice President Bawumia over the rise of the dollar.
According to him, currently in Europe the euro is “suffering in the hands of the dollar” which are all due to the impact COVID-19, Russia-Ukraine war and the tension between China and Taiwan is having on all economies.
Mr. Mahama is reported to have said that “now as we are all witnesses, the dollar has bolted, when asked where it is headed, it said it had been granted bail. When we investigated, it turned out that it was the cedi that had been jailed and the dollar had been bailed”.
But Chairman Wontumi responded in equal measure by mocking the former President for knowing little or keeping up with international news.
He accused Mr. Mahama of being a double faced person who lies on the local stage but tells the truth when put on an international platform to speak.
According to the NPP Chairman when Mr. Mahama was invited to speak at the Harvard Business School, he acknowledge that COVID has slowed down economies all around the world but is now refusing to admit this same fact in Ghana.
It would be recalled that Mr. Mahama told a gathering at the Harvard Business School that “Covid-19 created the continent’s worst recession in 50 years with real GDP shrinking by an average of 3% in 2020.”
“Before the pandemic, poverty reduction was already a major challenge. The pandemic is estimated to have dragged about 55 million more people into poverty in Africa and exposed another 46 million more to the risk of hunger, and malnourishment. Indeed 70% of hunger in Africa, which had already been on the rise since 2014 is directly attributable to this pandemic.”