A communicator of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Patrick Awuku has partly blamed the citizenry on the current economic woes.
According to him, Ghana is about an eighty per cent import driven country and therefore a high dependency on the foreign currencies.
“This is the government that thinks about the wellbeing of its citizens and hence, during the outbreak of COVID-19 and its restriction, it made provisions to cater for the livelihood of its citizenry. So how would such a government do things that will disrupt all the progress it has made? But there are things we need to relook into as a country, which is contributing to our woes”, he told Kwaku Dawuro on Movement in the morning show on Wontumi Radio/Movement TV.
He was however quick to add that the government’s policies including the One District One Factory will help stabilize the economy, if Ghanaians embrace the policy and gives its the maximum support.
“Even toothpick is imported into the country with dollars. So, until we get to a point where we cherish our own like our grandfathers did, we will continue to reel under such economic woes. Modernization is what has brought us here. We always prefer foreign goods to the locally made ones”.
He went further to plead with the Bank of Ghana to begin clamping down on companies pricing their goods and services in dollars.
” People are paying school fees, rents and other services in dollars. Can you go to America, Japan or China and trade with cedi? So why is it happening here. We will therefore plead with the Bank of Ghana to do something about that. if we say we are strengthening institutions for them to work then, they need to look at such things. And not just the black market. When they do so, this will help strengthen our cedi”, he added.
He urged Ghanaians to think about their community, constituency, and Ghana first before their political affiliation.