Arise Ghana says President John Dramani Mahama’s first month in office was a period marked by severe hardship for households, businesses and young people.
Speaking at the Arise Ghana Independent Assessment of the John Dramani Mahama Government’s First Year in Office, held on Wednesday, January 7, at the Ghana International Press Centre, Co-Convener of the group, Marion Gifty Nyaaba, said any fair evaluation of the government’s first year must be grounded in the economic realities it inherited.
According to her, Ghana’s economy at the time resembled a “storm-tossed sea,” with inflation soaring beyond 23%, significantly eroding purchasing power and turning basic necessities into luxuries for many families.
She noted that food prices rose sharply, with staples such as maize, rice and yam becoming increasingly unaffordable to millions of households, while fuel prices fluctuated widely due to global oil market volatility and domestic inefficiencies, making transportation unpredictable for commuters and businesses.
Ms Nyaaba further highlighted the precarious state of the national currency, which was trading close to GHC 16 to the US dollar.
She said public debt had risen beyond sustainable levels, raising concerns among international creditors and credit rating agencies, while Treasury bill rates exceeded 30%, effectively choking local businesses by making borrowing prohibitively expensive.
“Foreign reserves were alarmingly thin, barely enough to cover a few months of imports, leaving the economy highly exposed to external shocks,” she added.
The Arise Ghana Co-Convener also pointed to a sharp decline in investor confidence, explaining that multinational companies were reluctant to commit capital, while local firms shelved expansion plans, scaled down operations and, in some cases, laid off workers.
She said the economic downturn had a profound social impact, with households forced to survive week by week, dipping into savings and accumulating debt to meet basic needs.
Young people, she added, were particularly affected, as graduates struggled to find jobs and others considered emigrating in search of better opportunities.
Ms Nyaaba stressed that these challenges were not abstract economic concepts but lived realities for ordinary Ghanaians.
She emphasized that understanding this difficult inheritance is essential to any equitable assessment of the government’s performance over the past 12 months, noting that the situation demanded bold and decisive action to stabilise the economy and restore hope.
