Ghana’s Ministry of Finance has dismissed as “inaccurate and prejudicial” claims made in a British newspaper opinion piece suggesting that the United Kingdom is improperly funding what it described as Ghana’s “leftist, Russia-sympathising government.”
In a statement signed by Raymond Acquah, Technical Advisor for Strategic Communications and Public Relations at the Ministry, the government said the commentary by writer Mat Whatley, published in The Daily Telegraph, was riddled with “distortions and innuendo.”
“The most egregious of these is the suggestion that there is something improper in the financial relationship between the UK and Ghana,” the statement said.
The Ministry explained that Britain, along with the United States, Germany, and 20 other countries, was part of a multilateral debt restructuring agreement reached with Ghana in June under an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.
The arrangement followed debt defaults under former President Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration.
According to the statement, the government of President John Dramani Mahama “inherited an unholy mess of an economy, wrecked by mismanagement, complacency and corruption.”
It added that since Mahama took office in January, the cedi’s exchange rate has stabilised, inflation has fallen, and investor confidence has improved.
The Ministry criticised The Telegraph for publishing Whatley’s article, saying it “does the paper no credit to add to such pressures by inviting ill-informed, prejudicial and seemingly unfiltered comment,” particularly at a time of global political and economic uncertainty.
The statement was addressed to The Telegraph’s letters desk in London and copied to the Minister for Finance.
