Ghana’s economy completely on steroids – NPP’s Fred Kyei Asamoah
The Member of Parliament for Offinso North and Member of Parliament’s Economy and Development Committee, Fred Kyei Asamoah, has argued that Ghana’s economy is currently running on “stimulus measures” that cannot be sustained in the years ahead.
According to him, the economic policies of the current administration are “on steroids” but the effects are starting to wear off, pointing to the current crisis in the cocoa sector as evidence.
“This economy is on steroids. It’s completely on steroids, and nobody can stay on steroids forever, if you go into the health sector, you realize that you can give people steroid only for a certain period of time,” he said on Joy News’ PM Express on Wednesday.
Kyei Asamoah criticized what he described as fundamental miscalculations in the government’s economic projections, especially in commodity price projections, adding that the current administration’s justification for the delayed payments to farmers is “untenable.”
“You cannot run an economy on just commodity prices, they have had some significant missteps in terms of their projections and calculation,” he claimed. “If you look at the price of cocoa in the early part of 2025, it went as far as $12,931 or so, which was a huge money, and even when it came down it was averaging around $8,000.”
“The idea that we are now failing to pay farmers because we made a wrong decision is not tenable,” he stated, arguing that proper planning should have considered the possibility of price fluctuations.
The opposition figure warned of dire consequences for Ghana’s agricultural sector if the current situation persists.
The Economy Committee member warned that the current crisis and the recently announced price reduction could push several farmers out of the cocoa business, claiming that several farmers have already considered moving into the mining sector.
“If you look at opportunity cost, you realize that every farmer will want to move into gold business. There’s no incentive to stay in the farming business, which is part of the real sector of the economy,” he warned.
The Offinso North MP claimed that the erstwhile NPP administration warned the current government about these economic vulnerabilities before leaving office.
“I believe that we in the minority offer some solutions, some things that we had initiated prior to leaving government, and we cautioned the NDC government,” he asserted.
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