The rating of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo has dipped as 59 percent of Ghanaians say his government is taking Ghana in the wrong direction.
According to an Afrobarometer Survey of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), released on Wednesday, 27 November 2019, the citizens’ approval of the government’s economic performance has declined.
It added that Ghanaians’ approval ratings on indicators of the government’s economic performance have “declined sharply” compared to 2017.
The CDD said that a “few citizens are content with the country’s economic situation and their personal living conditions, while the majority say the country is headed in the wrong direction.”
“Still, more than half are optimistic that things will get better in a year’s time,” the survey noted, adding that, “Ghana has received positive reviews from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank and made important economic strides, including the successful completion of the IMF bailout programme and a clean-up of the financial sector. But so far, these successes appear not to have translated into concrete gains recognized by most citizens.”
According to the key findings, only three in ten Ghanaians (30 percent) describe the country’s economic conditions as “fairly good” or “very good,” a modest decline from 35 percent recorded in 2017.
“Fewer than four in ten (37 percent) say their personal living conditions are “fairly good” or “very good.”
“And only 31 percent say the country’s economic condition has improved over the past 12 months. But more than half (54 percent) are optimistic that things will be “better” or “much better” in 12 months’ time.
“Six in ten Ghanaians (59 percent) say the country is “going in the wrong direction.”
“The share of citizens who see the country as “going in the right direction” declined by 15 percentage points from 2017 to 35 percent.
The majority of citizens are of the opinion that the government is performing “fairly badly” or “very badly” in narrowing income gaps (66 percent), improving the living standards of the poor (56 percent), and creating jobs (54 percent).
“Approval ratings on indicators of the government’s economic performance have declined sharply compared to 2017, with approval on the management of the economy recording the steepest drop, by 20 percentage points,” the survey said.
Afrobarometer heads a pan-African, non-partisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions, and related issues across Africa. Seven rounds of surveys were completed in up to 38 countries between 1999 and 2018.
The Round 8 surveys are planned in at least 35 countries in 2019/2020.
Afrobarometer conducts face-to-face interviews in the language of the respondent’s choice with nationally representative samples.
– APA
