{"id":17276,"date":"2026-07-28T11:24:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T11:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=17276"},"modified":"2026-07-28T11:24:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T11:24:38","slug":"akufo-addo-govt-took-difficult-decisions-that-protected-ghanas-economy-egyapa-mercer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=17276","title":{"rendered":"Akufo-Addo gov\u2019t took difficult decisions that protected Ghana\u2019s economy \u2013 Egyapa Mercer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Sekondi MP Andrew Egyapa Mercer has defended the economic record of former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, arguing that his administration took critical decisions that helped Ghana navigate one of its most challenging economic periods.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mercer made the comments after Ghana officially completed its IMF Extended Credit Facility programme on Monday, July 27, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>In his Facebook post, the former Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister said the Akufo-Addo administration inherited an economy facing pressures but successfully implemented reforms that produced signs of recovery before the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.facebook.com%2FAndrewEgyapaMercer%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0ieLSx8GCZdm1QaXYPzyHe4nM45CW8VUZ4Yb7zz3wGXzmM1f7RdfSzsDCyGVpdTLsl&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"239\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He said by 2019, Ghana had recorded improvements in economic growth, inflation management and investor confidence before the pandemic created unprecedented global challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mercer highlighted the government\u2019s response to COVID-19, quoting former President Akufo-Addo\u2019s statement: \u201cWe know how to bring the economy back to life. What we do not know is how to bring people back to life.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"in-article\" data-google-query-id=\"CLPlhpmg9ZUDFe36DQkdGsIqLw\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/1002554\/Myjoyonline\/mjo-article-left_rectangle_mid1_0__container__\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>According to him, the decision to expand healthcare capacity and provide support to households and businesses was necessary, although it contributed to increased fiscal pressures.<\/p>\n<p>He said Ghana\u2019s eventual decision to seek IMF support was influenced by a combination of domestic fiscal challenges and external shocks, adding that the US$3 billion programme required painful but necessary reforms.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mercer said Ghana\u2019s IMF exit should therefore be viewed as a collective national effort involving successive governments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe current administration deserves credit for concluding it,\u201d he said, but added that \u201chistory must be precise\u201d in recognising the contributions of those who made difficult decisions during the crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Sekondi MP Andrew Egyapa Mercer has defended the economic record of former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, arguing that his administration took critical decisions that helped Ghana navigate one of its most challenging economic periods. Mr Mercer made the comments after Ghana officially completed its IMF Extended Credit Facility programme on Monday, July 27, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":17277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[347,5424],"class_list":["post-17276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","tag-akufo-addo","tag-andrew-egyapa-mercer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17278,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17276\/revisions\/17278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}