Former President John Dramani Mahama has admitted that the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has devastated economies of many African countries and sunk them deeper into unsustainable debts and economic downturns.
According him, in response to the ravages, governments in Africa took actions to protect their population, a development which resulted in increased deficits due to unbudgeted expenditures.
“This has devastated many African economies and sunk them deeper into unsustainable debts and economic downturns. This pandemic has had a general deleterious effect on the economy of African nations,” Mr Mahama further noted.
Poverty
The former President was speaking at the 24th African Business Conference organised by the Harvard Business School in the United States on April 24, 2022.
According to him, the pandemic has dragged about 55 million more people into poverty in Africa and exposed another 46 million more to the risk of hunger and malnourishment.
He added that 70% of hunger in Africa, which had already been on the rise since 2014, is attributable to this pandemic.
COVID-19 impact on Africa
Mr Mahama indicated that the entire African continent, based on “data from the Economic Commission of Africa (ECA)” shows that COVID-19 pandemic created the “continent’s worst recession in 50 years with real GDP shrinking by an average of 3% in 2020” and that “before the pandemic, poverty reduction was already a major challenge in Africa.”
Russia – Ukraine war
Touching on the impact of the Russia–Ukraine war on the African continent, Mr Mahama submitted, on the heels of COVID-19 pandemic, is yet another disruption. Describing the situation as a geo-political nature, he opined the war threatens to wreck more havoc on an already fragile continent.
“The Russia–Ukraine conflict is said to peg Africa’s growth back by an estimation of about 0.7%. Inflation is expected to rise by at least 2.2% in 2022 and as many as 43 countries that depend on energy and food imports will be confronted with fiscal and current account problems.”
Mr Mahama said that global increase in energy prices has escalated the cost of living and compounded hardships in many countries.
In light of the above, he added that the conversation is now about overcoming the twin problems of a pandemic and its aftermath, and a geo-political-induced economic crisis as opposed to one that focuses on just post-pandemic recovery.
Ghana’s story as told by Mahama
Meanwhile, former President Mahama, though admits the pandemic and the war have affected the continent, later stated that Ghana’s economy, equally impacted, could have been more resilient with better management.
The two-time unsuccessful presidential candidate posited that some African countries have been able to deal with the effects of the two crises better than others because of discipline and prudent use of their resources.
“In my country, Ghana, our economy has emerged in an extremely poor shape from the COVID experience, with ballooning deficit, double digit inflation, nose-diving currency and increasing debt distress are some of the symptoms of a very ill economy,” Mahama said.
“Ghana’s case was easy to predict. With the cavalier handling of the economy by the current administration, unbridled borrowing from the capital markets, created misstatements and other critical fiscal budget, figures were certain to come to a head eventually,” he submitted.
“Ghana went into the pandemic without adequate buffers and has emerged with a terribly battered economy,” he decried.
“To make matters worse, a pandemic windfall in excess of 33 billion Ghana cedis, which could have cushioned the economy, remains unaudited and is believed to have been used largely in the quest to win election 2020 at all cost,” he further stated.
These remarks by the potential 2024 flag bearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has left many asking on social media what he could have done differently, giving that he was voted out of power and later rejected on two occasions.
Meanwhile, some Ghanaians who have listened to the former President at the forum, believe he hit the nail right on the head, but others see some level of what they described as hypocrisy.
