Presidential hopeful in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) race, Bryan Acheampong, has criticised the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government’s handling of the economy, describing recent improvements as superficial and unsustainable.

Speaking on the state of the economy, Mr Acheampong argued that the recent appreciation of the cedi was driven by short-term interventions rather than structural reforms.

According to him, about $10 billion injected into the Bank of Ghana’s reserves was used to stabilise the currency, a move he said failed to strengthen the economy’s fundamentals.

“What they are doing is purely cosmetic. About $10 billion has come into the Bank of Ghana’s coffers, and they have pushed that money into the economy to force the dollar to come down,” he stated.

Mr Acheampong maintained that while similar measures were available to the NPP when it was in government, his party opted against them in favour of long-term economic stability.

“The NPP could have done the same, but that is not how to manage an economy. If you take that $10 billion in 2025, by 2026 there will be nothing left if the need arises,” he said.

He stressed that “Economic growth should come from creating jobs and strengthening the fundamentals to make the economy resilient in the years ahead, just as we did between 2016 and 2019 before COVID-19 hit."

Mr Acheampong further claimed that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned against repeating such interventions, noting that they contributed to Ghana’s rising debt levels.

“This year, that option will not be available, and we will see where the dollar will be,” he said.