Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has stated that he understands the plight of Ghanaians who say they are hungry.
According to him, he can relate to their concerns because his home is also impacted by especially price hikes and the hike in general cost of living.
In an interview on the June 28 edition of Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana programme, the Minister disclosed how his wife had continually lamented how domestic expenses kept changing because of price volatility.
“I understand what you (hungry Ghanaians) are talking about because the general cost of living has gone up. My wife tells me every time how the same amount of money that a month ago could keep the house can no longer keep the house.
“Because the prices of food transportation and many basic items have gone up and that increase has also led to an increase in general price levels because if general prices have gone up then people also increase the prices and charges for all the things around us,” he stressed.
The Minister quickly added that the hikes were not peculiar to Ghana and that it had largely been occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently by the Russia-Ukraine war and its disruption of global supply chains.
He spoke about global inflation and the low revenue levels that local governments were experiencing. According to him, even the US government took drastic actions with federal salaries.
He stated that government had warned in March that three crises were to be expected – fuel, food and finance crisis. Oppong-Nkrumah said government implemented some measure in March and a review of these measures shows that the numbers do not look good.
Ghana’s economy has in recent times witnessed a downturn with government appointees admitting that the country was facing challenging times, as quoted by Ghanaweb.
Many economists have also pointed to the rate of inflation, fuel price hikes, and general cost of living as the basis for the claim.
The government has however blamed the ravages of the Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict for the country’s woes.
