President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has strongly refuted claims that Ghana is currently battling financial crisis.
Speaking during his final State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Parliament on January 3, 2024, Akufo-Addo emphatically stated that Ghana is not broke, contrary to the popular speculation.
He attributed the claims of the country’s alleged indebtedness to propagandists aiming to mislead the public.
“Mr. Speaker, the country is not broke, as some propagandists want us to believe. We are handing over a country with gross international reserves of almost $8 billion. This is more than the $6.2 billion in gross international reserves my administration inherited in 2017,” he declared.
As the President spoke, members of the opposition began making noise in the Parliament chamber, expressing disagreement with his statement.
Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin then interjected, stating, “Your statistics may differ, but that doesn’t mean he is misleading the House.”
Akufo-Addo responded, “The noise will not shutter the statistics and I intend to put the statistics on the record of hindsight no matter the amount of noise,” he said.
The State of the Nation Address (SONA), as mandated by Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution, provides the outgoing President with the opportunity to report on the nation’s status before leaving office.
This event also marks the final session of the 8th Parliament of the 4th Republic, which is set to be dissolved on Monday, January 6, 2025.
MAG/EB
