President John Dramani Mahama has expressed profound surprise at the unprecedented speed of Ghana’s economic recovery, admitting that the turnaround has far outpaced his own administration’s initial projections.
Speaking at the 23rd Anniversary and Thanksgiving Service of the First Sky Group in Accra on Sunday, January 25, 2026, the President shared that the country’s fiscal stabilization has become a point of disbelief even for global financial giants.
The President revealed that during high-level meetings with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, officials from both institutions expressed shock at how quickly the Ghanaian economy pivoted toward stability.
“We are all surprised and shocked at the quick turnaround. Anytime I meet the IMF officials and the World Bank officials, they themselves cannot believe what has happened in Ghana
Reflecting on the gravity of the economic crisis his government inherited, the President confessed that he had mentally braced the nation for a much longer period of hardship. He noted that he originally expected it would take at least two years to witness any tangible signs of recovery.
“In my own imagination, I thought that we would need about two years to begin to see a turnaround… but Ebenezer, this is how far God has brought us,” he remarked, attributing the success to a combination of rigorous policy discipline and divine intervention.
Record-Breaking Economic Indicators
To illustrate the scale of the recovery, President Mahama highlighted two major milestones achieved within a single year:
“To bring inflation from 23.8% to 5.4% in one year? I mean, how did we manage that? For the first time to see the Ghanaian Cedi appreciate by 37% in one year, it is only God,” the President added.
The President further noted that Ghana’s rapid reform strategy has made the nation a blueprint for other African countries facing similar fiscal challenges. He mentioned that peer nations are now looking toward Ghana to study the policy choices and structural reforms that triggered this stability.
“When you go to other African countries, they say, ‘Don’t you see Ghana? Don’t you see what Ghana has done?’ And that is why I say, it is by the grace of God,” he concluded.
Watch President Mahama’s full speech below:
