Minister for Education and Member of Parliament for Tamale South Constituency, Haruna Iddrisu, has stated that the immediate-past New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration riddled Ghana into a nation struggling with unsustainable debt.
During a parliamentary proceeding on Wednesday, March 5, 2025, the Minister described Ghana’s current economic state as one that has introduced new vocabulary into economics.
The legislator explained that the introduction of Ghana’s new economic terms, including “haircut costs,” “domestic exchange,” and “debt exchange,” were unfamiliar to economics students in the early ’90s because “the economy was not well managed.”
He criticized the NPP who once paraded themselves as ‘superior managers of the economy’ but ended up increasing Ghana’s public debts to GHC741 billion, road sector debts to GHC29 billion, and GHC80 billion electricity debts.
“What is left with the state that you do not want President Mahama to describe as bad?” he quizzes.
The education Minister recounted the rising cost of living and production in Ghana, stressing that the private sector, including Ghanaian businesses have been severely affected.
He also noted that President Mahama set an unprecedented record in Ghana’s history by reducing the number of cabinet ministers. Previously, the number of ministers stood at 110, later reduced to 88, then increased to 93, before returning to 88.
However, he emphasized that President Mahama was determined to set a new benchmark by appointing only 60 cabinet ministers, including deputies.
He described President Mahama’s bold decision as “undeniably the smallest size of government ever under the Fourth Republic.”
