head of presidential election in December 2016, Ghana’s President, John Mahama, said in a speech addressed to his party on September 13 that “Ghana's budget deficit is expected to fall to 4.9 percent of GDP this year against an initial projection of 5.3 percent”, adding that “gross domestic product is expected to grow more than 8 percent next year, compared with a projected 4.1 percent this year”, reported Reuters.

In order to win another 4-year term, Mahama hopes that the economy, which has slowed since his coming to power in 2012, will be revived. Slowdown of Ghana’s economy was spurred by a global slump in prices of gold, oil and cocoa which are its main export commodities.

Ghana’s debt is now so high that it had to borrow $918 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to recover budget stability. The nation also issued various Eurobonds, the most recent of $750 million.

The next election will be quite difficult for President Mahama who will be facing Nana Akufo-Addo, the leader of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), former ruling party.

Alain Okpeitcha