In August 2022, Andrew Atariwini, a member of the NPP’s Upper East Regional Communication team was cock-sure that Ghana’s economy would be completely turned around to one that’s prosperous and flourishing in exactly 3 months.
Mr. Atariwini made this statement when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show.
“Yes, the cedi might be weak. Yes, the cedi might be non-performing but I am telling you that I stand with the President in his efforts to let the economy rebound. It is on course. Ghanaians should just not be afraid.”
“Nobody should be worried. Everything is on course. You see this performance, mark my words; take today’s date, August 9th, 2022, I am saying give us 3 months from now and you will see that the narrative about the cedi will be a different story.”
Mr. Atariwini’s comments were made on the back of data that suggests that Ghana’s currency is the worst performing currency in Africa.
The precarious situation of the cedi is not getting any better soon, as the local currency has recorded a -28.82% depreciation to the dollar as of August 8th, 2022, Bloomberg has said.
This still ranked the local currency as the worst among African currencies with the “Worst Spot Returns”, and could be heading for a record in the last 25 years.
Speaking on the same stage 2 weeks before his prior forecast, Mr. Atariwini was firm in his belief that the cedi will recover as expected.
When asked whether he would retract and apologise for the comments, he said, “no, it is not an apology issue.”
He continued to say, “we have an opposition that is so desperate for power and would not adhere to logic. They would not admit even when their opponents are doing the unbelievable. We would not waste our time. What I can assure the people of Ghana is this; in the coming days, the President would speak, the technocrats are meeting and a lot is going to be done.”
” I do [stand by earlier comments of cedi and economy rebounding in 3 months]. I am telling you that if you see the cedi, if you check how currencies depreciate, it would go to a certain crescendo and then it would fall. It will fall. Strategies are being kept in place. I have a gist of what is happening. We are going to shore up the supply of forex.”
Mr. Atariwini castigated the opposition NDC for their unhelpful attitude towards development of the country.
“If we want to talk about the economy, why you see the President being hard on the opposition is because we [members of the opposition] are not providing solutions. We are just biting hard. It is not easy that when you wake up in the morning as a leader, everybody around is complaining. Even your own people that are with you are expressing a certain level of frustration.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
