Veteran journalist Kwesi Pratt Jnr
Veteran journalist Kwesi Pratt Jnr has taken a swipe at the New Patriotic Party (NPP) over pronouncements by its Members of Parliament on the state of Ghana’s economy.
Speaking during a panel discussion on Metro TV on Wednesday, March 5, 2025, Pratt Jnr expressed disbelief that the NPP legislators would be talking about exchange rate volatility when the House was debating President John Dramani Mahama’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).
He asserted that the NPP MPs are the last people who should talk about exchange rate volatility because their government performed poorly in managing the country’s currency when they were in office.
“My brother, we are talking about exchange rate stability today. Shocking. Why? You took over at a time when the dollar rate was GH¢3.4 to $1. Today the rate is GH¢16 to a dollar. And you’re telling us about exchange rate stability as if words don’t mean anything. It’s just completely baffling,” he said.
The veteran journalist, who is the Managing Editor of The Insight newspaper, said that the NPP managed the economy so badly that the country could not pay its debts.
“We’ve come to the point where, according to Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, before he exited office, we needed 128% of total national revenue for three line items: debt servicing, debt repayment, and public sector emoluments. That’s a bankrupt state.”
He refuted the assertions that the NPP government, led by former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, handed over a rebounding economy to the John Dramani Mahama administration.
“So where is the resurgence in the economy? This is the state of the economy. And this state of the economy can only be referred to as bankruptcy. Now for ordinary Ghanaians, for Ghanaians and normal Ghanaians and so on. If they are to judge the state of the economy and they use their own lives, you know, to judge the state of the economy, what conclusion can they come to?
“Every price of every item has escalated in some cases by as much as 1000%. And then you tell us about the state of the economy and so on. You took over when a ball of kenkey was GHp50. You left office when the same ball of kenkey was GH¢5, and you are telling us about a resilient economy that you left. What resilient national economy?” he queried.
Watch his remarks in the video below:
NPP has the guts to talk about exchange rate stability today? – Kwesi Pratt hits back at NPP’s #SONA#GoodMorningGhana #MetroTV pic.twitter.com/y4nCl2oakM
— Metro TV Ghana (@metrotvgh) March 5, 2025
BAI/EK
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Meanwhile, watch this Ghana Month special edition of People and Places as we hear the story of how the head of Kwame Nkrumah’s bronze statue was returned after 43 years, below:
