A member of the communications team of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Bernard Oduro Takyi, has raised questions about the number of ministers at the finance ministry.

In his view, there is nothing to show for the four ministers (two substantive ministers and two deputies) at the ministry. 

He said four ministers packed into one ministry has led to all the rating organisations downgrading Ghana’s economy to caa1, thereby making Ghana’s economy a “junk economy”.

Speaking on Accra100.5FM’s morning show, Ghana Yensom, hosted by Kwame Obeng Sarkodie, Monday, 28 March 2022, Mr Takyi wondered why President Akufo-Addo was keeping four persons at the ministry alone.  

“Ghana’s population is less than 40 million and we’ve four ministers managing an economy that is already collapsed,” he bemoaned.

He noted that keeping four ministers at the Ministry of Finance is wasteful. 

“Go to the United States of America and the United Kingdom, they only have one minister for the management of the economy,” he argued. 

“The ministers have woefully failed to deliver economic stability for Ghanaians because the main minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of State, Charles Adu Boahen, and two deputies namely Dr John Kumah and Ms. Abena Osei Asare, do not understand the situation they have been put in by the president,” he added. 

The NDC communicator was of the opinion that in any serious economy, the finance minister, who is an investment-inclined person, would not be at the post by now.

According to him, the 47-page economic restoration programme announced by the minister, clearly states he has failed the state.

He said the minister's philosophy is all about investments and not about the financial management of the economy.

“He does not understand economic management, he eats and drinks investments, hence his inordinate borrowing,” Mr Takyi stated.   

According to him, “Keeping four ministers at the Ministry is a wasteful expenditure to the highest order”.

He called on President Akufo-Addo to cut down on the number of ministers, adding: “If the four ministers had performed as expected of them we will not have been here today.”