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Ex-President John Dramani Mahama has insisted that he left a stable economy for the current administration, contrary to assertions by government officials who blame him for the challenges the country is currently facing.

Speaking at an event organised by NDC to tell Ghanaians the current state of the Nation, Mahama said that the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led government could have at the barest minimum built on the strong foundation his government left behind to help improve the livelihood of Ghanaians.

“After inheriting a stable economy that was programmed and poised for rapid growth from early 2017, this government has squandered its way into a ditch from which it has become impossible to emerge without imposing even deeper hardships and suffering on Ghanaians.

“The minimum expectation was that the NPP government will build on the strong foundation that had been bequeathed them and achieve incremental progress over what they met. They have instead carried out a demolition exercise of that foundation and left our economy in quicksand, sinking at an alarming rate.

“… in the hands of a more responsible and prudent administration, the resources that have been available to this administration, should have resulted in quantum leaps in the standard of living of Ghanaians and we should have recorded major progress as a nation,” Mahama said at the ‘Ghana at a Crossroads’ programme.

He further stated that the mismanagement of Akufo-Addo and his government has led to hardships in the economy which is having a devastating effect on almost all spheres of life of Ghanaians.

Citing some examples, the former president said that in the area of education there are issues at all levels including the inability of the government to pay capitation grants to basic schools and to supply them with the requisite text for more than three years.

He added that social intervention programmes including Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as well as statutory funds like the District Assembly Common Fund and GETFund have been in arrears for several months.