National Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Mr. Stephen Ntim has revealed, the administrations of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that took over from President John Kufuor added the most to Ghana’s debt stock. Mr. Ntim made the revelation at a press conference on Tuesday, 4 April 2023. “One of the central claims of the NDC’s false State of the Nation address is that this government has over-borrowed. This is not true, but the NDC keeps repeating it”. According to him, “The NDC likes to promote this misinformation by computing our debt stock using nominal figures because it hides their unprecedented rate of debt accumulation. The best way to compute our debt to see which government has borrowed more by using the rate accumulation”. Below is the full statement: THE NATIONAL CHAIRMAN OF THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY, STEPHEN AYESU NTIM, RESPONDS TO THE NDC’S SO-CALLED TRUE STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS DATE: TUESDAY MARCH 28th, 2023 @ 11:00 am VENUE: ALISA HOTEL 1. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, Media, and dear People of Ghana! Good morning, and thank you for honouring our invitation to attend this press conference. 2. On 8th March 2023, the President of the Republic of Ghana delivered a Message on the State of the Nation (SONA) under Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution as a symbol and practical demonstration of accountability, and with the utmost respect to the people of Ghana. 3. The President, in his delivery, addressed critical issues of concern to all Ghanaians. The focus of the SONA was on the economic situation of our country and how quickly we are stabilising the economy and working our way back to the period of rapid economic growth. 4. The SONA provided an honest assessment of our country’s situation and sought the support of Ghanaians in addressing the challenges facing our country with hope and confidence. 5. Then, on 20th March 2023, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), as usual, produced a distorted account of the President’s state of the nation address in an attempt to ride on the emotions of Ghanaians for their political gain. Activities leading to the NDC’s UPSA press conference were dramatised as though the NDC had something unprecedented to present. It was an anticlimax because, in the end, nothing new was said except the same old exaggeration and deliberate misrepresentation of facts. 6. The statement read by the NDC Chairman, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, was far from a document seeking to discuss the state of our country. There was no serious analysis of the economy, no assessment of sectoral developments, and no attempt to propose solutions to the current economic challenges. 7. Ordinarily, we would refrain from responding to the NDC on the SONA. However, given the extent of misinformation contained in their statement, we owe a duty to Ghanaians to straighten the distortions designed to incite disaffection rather than to inform Ghanaians. 8. My clarification of the NDC’s statement will focus mainly on the economy and comments on the other matters to do with the misinformation about the size of the government and the subject of corruption. The Economy 9. First, let me thank the good people of Ghana for supporting the government as we work together to resolve this historic economic crisis that has disrupted the global economy and impacted Ghana. 10.Ghana’s economy was the toast of the world until Covid-19. Before 2020, Ghana was hailed among the fastest-growing economies in the world. But COVID-19 disrupted the growth momentum of our economy and later the Russia-Ukraine War. As a result of these factors, Ghana’s economy, which was among the fastest-growing economies in the world, started to decelerate in 2020, and the government has committed everything in its toolkit to regenerate it. 11.Ladies and gentlemen, the ravaging impact of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine War on the global economy are visible all around us. But somehow, the NDC has refused to acknowledge or admit this fact to continue misinforming Ghanaians that this government has mismanaged the economy. 12.So, the NDC’s press conference was merely a repetition of their denial of the impact of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine War on the economy. The NDC hopes that by consistently propagating this blatant misinformation, it will get enough Ghanaians to come to believe it. 13.Ladies and gentlemen of the media, I am concerned about this deliberate misinformation campaign by the NDC to deny the impact of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine War on Ghana’s economy. This is because, over time, by hearing this lie repeatedly, it begins to resemble the truth for the consumption or acceptance of the general public. 14.The media is not exempted from this misinformation campaign because you, too, are feeling the pinch of the hardships in the country. Our pensioners were recently demonstrating against the inevitable Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, and many others are concerned about increasing taxes. These real bread-and-butter issues that make it difficult for anyone to believe it is not the government’s fault that we are going through these hard times. This is the opportunity the NDC seeks to exploit, to weaponise the hardships caused by these external factors to make the government unpopular. 15.The plain truth is that this government has managed the economy diligently and well. The hardships we are experiencing in Ghana are being experienced everywhere because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War. Workers in some of the world’s biggest economies are demanding salary increases due to historic global inflation. It is happening in—the United Kingdom, France and Germany. In the United Kingdom, I was told a couple of weeks ago that they had to ration vegetables and cooking oil. Can you imagine rationing pepper in Ghana? 16.The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, confirmed the impact of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine War on the United States economy and how difficult the effort to rebuild has been. 17.Kenya, one of the most dynamic economies in East Africa, has recently run out of U.S. dollars. Most fuel and oil importers