John Mahama takes oath as Ghana's president amid severe economic crisis
The new Ghanaian president, John Mahama, is being sworn in this Tuesday, 7 January, in Accra, as the nation looks for solutions to its worst economic crisis in a generation.
He takes office as the country faces a deep economic crisis.
Mahama has already promised to find sustainable solutions to Ghana's financial turmoil, to fight corruption, to improve its energy supply, and to manage the regular power outages from which the country suffers.
“We’re facing a critical situation in the energy sector," Mahama said. "The electricity company of Ghana is the ‘sick man’ of the whole value chain and we need to quickly fix it."
The new president also started working on reinforcing Ghana's partnership with other stable African nations, travelling to Kenya just before the end of the year to meet President William Ruto.
Emergency budget
Mahama is Ghana's main opposition figure and tried twice before to win back the country's top post.
As the leader of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, he defeated Mahamudu Bawumia, who represented the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), in elections on 7 December.
Ghana's former president Mahama wins election after ruling party concedes defeat
Ghana's parliament passed a provisional budget mid-December, which allows the government to spend 68.1 billion Ghanaian cedis (€4.2 billion) through March, narrowly averting an unprecedented government shutdown.
(with newswires)
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