The economy is emerging as a key issue in the campaign for Ghana’s December 2024 presidential election, at a time when the country is facing one of the worst economic crises in its history.
Mahamudu Bawumia, the candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), is striving to distance himself from the much-criticized record of current Head of State Nana Akufo-Addo, of whom he is Vice-President. Mr. Bawumia, a former deputy governor of the Central bank, will next year face John Mahama, a former President (2012–2017), who will once again run for his party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Mr. Bawumia’s camp recognizes that it will be difficult for him to dissociate himself completely from the record of Mr. Akufo-Addo, his long-standing ally, whose Vice-president he served for eight years. But his supporters are counting on his experience, his visibility as Vice-president, and his role in the digitization of the State to reveal him as a leader.
In what promises to be a close duel, Mr. Mahama’s supporters are hoping that the NPP’s very mixed economic record will handicap the government and tip the balance in favor of their champion. “The state of the economy will dominate next year’s campaign and will be John Mahama’s key message,” notes Professor Smart Sarpong, a political researcher at Kumasi Technical University.
For the NPP, Ghana, like other sub-Saharan countries, has suffered greatly from the international context, notably the double shock of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. But for its NDC rival, it is the NPP and its policies that are responsible for the country’s economic difficulties. “We have been deceived by the Akufo-Addo government, and they are leaving us in the lurch,” says Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Mr. Mahama’s campaign spokesman. “Bawumia didn’t know how to manage the economy, and when everything collapsed, we ran to the IMF to get a bailout”, he pointed out.