President John Dramani Mahama has admitted that the Covid-19 pandemic, which struck the world five years ago, derailed Ghana’s poverty alleviation efforts.
The unprecedented pandemic devastated global economies, leading to widespread job losses and a sharp rise in the cost of living.
While the erstwhile Akufo-Addo government consistently attributed Ghana’s economic downturn between 2020 and 2022 to the pandemic, then-opposition leader Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) rejected that explanation.
However, speaking at the United Nations General Assembly during a side event dubbed Accra Reset, President Mahama acknowledged that the pandemic had indeed negatively impacted Ghana, particularly its fight against poverty.
“The Covid-19 pandemic erased two decades of poverty reduction in less than two years,” state broadcaster Ghana Television quoted the President as saying on its official Facebook page.
The admission has surprised many commentators, with some recalling how Mahama and the NDC had rejected similar claims by the previous government. Several reactions suggested that the President’s comments had vindicated the position of the Akufo-Addo administration.