Senior Partner at AB & David Africa, David Ofosu-Dorte, says the John Dramani Mahama administration has performed creditably in its first year in office by stabilising key sectors of the economy and halting further decline following a difficult economic period.
He made the assessment during a roundtable discussion on John Mahama 2.0: Thematic Assessment of Year One.
According to Mr Ofosu-Dorte, the government’s immediate responsibility upon assuming office was to arrest deterioration caused by the debt exchange programme, IMF negotiations and broader economic instability.
“What was required when we had moved from a situation of DDEP, an IMF situation and all the chaos surrounding it. For me, any good manager will tell you that in such a situation, the first thing is to stop deterioration,” he said.
On road infrastructure, Mr Ofosu-Dorte noted that the administration has taken steps to prevent further decay of existing roads.
“One is the road sector; if a road is deteriorating, what has been put in place to ensure that the deterioration stops? And I think there are a lot of examples which have come on your station—quite a lot of examples of road projects. But this is stage one. Stop deterioration doesn’t mean you should rest on your laurels,” he explained.
Touching on the energy sector, he commended the government for tackling long-standing debt challenges and initiating payment arrangements to clear arrears.
“The energy sector debt is a huge one; it has been perennial; it has been with us since about 2007, thereabout. There are times it appears to go and come back. It fluctuates. I did hear that as of December 31, 2025, GH¢1.4 billion in arrears have been paid.
“I’m aware there have been some arrangements to pay the arrears over a period. It appears they are ahead of schedule with payments. That is a significant attempt to stop deterioration, and that is quite important,” he remarked.
Mr Ofosu-Dorte also praised efforts to address student accommodation challenges, particularly at the University of Ghana.
“Another example is the promise to supply student accommodation. I’m sure you have heard about the 10,000-student hostel for the University of Ghana, where the university says it has a shortage of about 40,000 beds.
“Attempting to supply a quarter of it in year one, even though it has not been achieved, is an attempt to stop deterioration. It’s by these I measure,” he said.
On power supply, he observed notable stability in the sector, suggesting that the era of persistent outages—popularly referred to as dumsor—has largely been contained.
“Let’s take the power sector apart from the payment. I don’t know if dumsor has returned or ‘dum sie sie’. To the best of my knowledge, from where I stay and work, there has been a large amount of stability,” he stated.
He attributed this improvement to enhanced transparency and improved cash-flow management within the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
“How was the power debt paid? It appears it was simple transparency—to see what goes into the ECG, what the cash-flow mechanism is like, and how we are able to collect and apply a method that we have talked about but has never been implemented. That is a good attempt to stop deterioration,” he added.
Mr Ofosu-Dorte concluded that, judged on roads, power stability and student accommodation, the Mahama administration has recorded a strong performance in its first year in office.
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