Boakye Agyarko, a former Energy Minister, has charged the administration with doing the necessary effort to rectify the present economic crisis rather than blaming foreign reasons.
Even while circumstances like COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war have an influence on economies like Ghana's, he believes the government must plan ahead to prevent the detrimental effects of such events.
"Managing national economies is a complex business, sure; it is true that foreign influences would play a significant role, especially if you look at Ghana as a tiny open economy," he said on Asempa FM in Accra on June 20, 2022.
"Our degree of openness is approximately 80%, but the US's degree of openness is only 15%, which implies that the things that impact them amount to 15% as opposed to our 80%, putting us at the mercy of the world's vicissitudes."
"It doesn't help to beat a dead horse by blaming Ukraine (conflict) and others," he stated. "That is why forward planning is necessary." That is why you prepare for adversity."
He said that the government must refrain from blaming the war and the epidemic since the two issues are incomprehensible to the average Ghanaian living in rural Ghana.
"The government is working hard to minimise some of these issues, but is that enough, and are we even looking forward?" he said. "Are we making the difficult decisions necessary to get us out and moving forward?"
When asked if Ghana should seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund, he stated, "I have never been a supporter of the IMF; people say we've gone to the IMF 17 times and they haven't developed us." That is not the IMF's job, and neither is it to develop anyone.
"The World Bank is in charge of development." If you want development, go to the World Bank. The IMF is like a policeman who uses Article 4 to curb financial irresponsibility.
Since the beginning of this year, the cost of living has been gradually growing in tandem with the rise in the price of petroleum goods.
Furthermore, according to the Ghana Statistical Service, GSS, inflation reached an all-time high last month.
The GSS revealed on Wednesday, June 9 that May inflation was 27.6 percent. This was a rise of four percentage points above the April 2022 figure of 23.6 percent.
According to their analysis, food, non-food items, and imported commodities were the main causes of inflation in Ghana.
Grapes had the highest year-on-year inflation rate of 100.8 percent in May 2022, followed by fuel at 81.1 percent.
Watermelon, fuel, maize, corn dough/corn flour, gas, soap, charcoal, wheat flour, avocado pear, vegetable oil, groundnut oil