Former Deputy Finance Minister and Member of Parliament for Obuasi West, Kwaku Kwarteng, has admitted that the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) biggest failure in government was excessive spending without implementing the reforms needed to generate sustainable revenue.
Speaking in an interview on Thursday, January 8, Mr. Kwarteng said the party failed to address deep-seated weaknesses in Ghana’s economic management despite inheriting a fragile economy already under an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme in 2017.
He explained that the NPP introduced several policy interventions without adequate revenue backing, a situation he said inevitably led to the current economic challenges.
Mr. Kwarteng rejected claims that the COVID-19 pandemic was solely responsible for Ghana’s economic crisis, arguing instead that decades of poor economic management and a culture of spending beyond the country’s means worsened the situation. He admitted the NPP administration failed to reverse this trend, leaving the economy vulnerable when the pandemic struck.
He urged the current government to break away from what he described as a cycle of borrowing to finance recurrent overspending, warning that relying on debt cannot deliver long-term development.
However, Mr. Kwarteng expressed concern that the present administration is repeating past mistakes, citing what he described as continued wasteful expenditure and a lack of bold, politically difficult reforms. He warned that unless decisive action is taken to strengthen economic fundamentals, Ghana risks sliding back into crisis despite recent signs of stability.