Tempers flare as Sammy Gyamfi and NPP's Dr. Frank Bannor engage in 'economic showdown' on live TV

A conversation about the state of the Ghanaian economy and the factors responsible for the messy economy being experienced in the country on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana program nearly spiralled out of control, with the debate degenerating into a battle of academic prowess in economics and personal attacks.

On the Thursday, August 15 edition of the show, Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and Dr. Frank Bannor, an economist with leanings towards the New Patriotic Party (NPP), were empanelled to discuss the economic plans of their respective candidates.

In his presentation, Dr. Frank Bannor rehashed the argument by pro-government communicators that Ghana’s economy would be flourishing but for the twin disasters of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war.

In his view, the economic crises the country experienced were solely due to exogenous factors and claims by the NDC and some economists that the crisis was occasioned by mismanagement of the economy were not true.

He denied opinions that measures such as the excessive printing of cash by the Bank of Ghana contributed to the crunching of the Ghanaian economy.

“If you look at the global inflation in 2022, it increased by 1.5%. The United States of America had an inflation rate of 9.1%, and Joe Biden is on record attributing the rise of inflation to Putin's invasion of Ukraine. He attributes it to the fact that gas became a weaponized commodity. Most of the inputs that we use here we import. So if you are paying more for the input, then the price of the goods on the general market would go up and inflation will definitely go up.

“The Central Bank prints money for two main reasons. The first one is to replace old currency notes, and the second purpose is to refinance government financing. As an economist, in most cases, you would not advise the government to finance its deficit through borrowing.

“Under the Fourth Republic, the highest deficit we have experienced was 11.6% of GDP, which was in 2012. The IMF reports that the Bank of Ghana financed completely the deficit, but the inflationary rate did not skyrocket, so it cannot be right that the central bank printed money to finance the deficit, which is why we had a higher inflationary rate,” he said.

However, his argument was rejected by Sammy Gyamfi, who maintained that the current economic struggles were caused by the actions and inactions of the government.

As Gyamfi made his statements, he referenced aspects of Dr. Frank Bannor’s comments, which compelled him to interject and led to a rise in tempers between the two panellists.

Sammy Gyamfi stated that some of the economic arguments tabled by Dr. Bannor were, in his view, erroneous and did not do justice to the issues.

“He says I'm comparing Ghana's inflation rate to Francophone countries, but that's not what I did. I compared Ghana's rate to the inflation rates of other African countries. I was referring to all the other 53 African countries. I mentioned Nigeria in 2022, and their inflation rate was 18.8%, so if we did 54%, you can't say that it is due to COVID or Russia versus Ukraine.

“He goofed on the statement that no economist will compare Ghana to other countries. Is he a better economist than Bawumia? Bawumia is comparing Ghana to four other African countries in terms of budget deficit, and the countries include Ivory Coast.

“Is it not Akufo-Addo and Bawumia who introduced Ivory Coast and Francophone countries as comparators in Ghana's politics? Today, you sit here to propound strange economic theories that we cannot compare Ghana to Francophone countries,” he said.

The debate went on for over fifteen minutes, with the host, Dr. Randy Abbey, threatening at some point to mute the microphones of the two panellists.

Watch the showdown below