Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, the Minister of Finance, has pleaded with Ghanaians to forgive the ruling New Patriotic Party government for the economic hardships the country is facing.
He attributed the recent high cost of living to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) that the government had to implement as part of conditions from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Speaking at a town hall meeting in Accra, Dr. Adam explained that it was never the government’s intention to impose hardships on Ghanaians.
“We decided to restructure our debts because it was one of the requirements by the IMF. We started with the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme. The DDEP was a very successful programme, achieving 95% participation. And on this note, I would like to appeal to the people of Ghana to forgive us, forgive us.
“It is never the intention of any government to impose hardships on its people. More so, the NPP government has demonstrated that we want to reduce the burden on the Ghanaian people,” he said.
The Minister added “It was a necessary, very important decision at the time, that if we had avoided it, our economy would not recover as it has recovered today. The decisions we made, and all the support you gave us during the DDEP have contributed largely to the recovery our economy is seeing today.”.
“This is why I want to appeal to you to forgive us. But also to thank you on behalf of the president for the sacrifices, for the efforts that you all have made participating in the DDEP that saved our economy,” Dr. Amin Adams espoused.