Not able to get a task as an accountant since graduating 5 years in the past, Ghanaian Nathaniel Qainoo has been pressured to switch his calculator for a spanner.

The 29-year-old used to be busy repairing a taxi below the shadow of a mango tree when the BBC met him at his house within the little the town of Kasoa, about 30km (18 miles) from the capital Accra.

He incessantly spoke of “the hardship” – a word that has develop into ordinary in Ghana because the people plunged right into a deep financial situation in 2022.

This used to be the yr when the federal government defaulted on its debt repayments, world ranking companies downgraded Ghana’s creditworthiness to “junk status”, and inflation skyrocketed to 54%. So as to add to the woes of Ghanaians, their forex, the cedi, has misplaced 70% of its price within the presen 8 years.

This pressured Ghana to store a $3bn (£2.4bn) bailout from the World Financial Charity (IMF). The commercial medication efforts had been expensive, for the purpose of important losses for pensioners and traders who held executive bonds.

All this has made Mr Qainoo so miserable that he does no longer intend to vote in Saturday’s presidential and parliamentary elections, even though the electoral fee is assured that voter turnout will likely be prime.

“I don’t know how this country is going to be saved from this crisis,” Mr Qainoo informed the BBC.

His thoughts is on emigrating to North The united states or Europe.

“I would like to leave the country, go outside, live better, work harder,” Mr Qainoo added.

He isn’t isolated. Many younger folk – who assemble up virtually 40% of the society, consistent with the 2021 census – wish to abandon Ghana.

They see few task potentialities in a rustic with an unemployment fee of 14%.

So it isn’t unexpected that the financial system has ruled the election marketing campaign.

The 2 major presidential front-runners are:

• Former President John Mahama, who’s hoping to barrel his as far back as energy like Donald Trump, and

• Mahamudu Bawumia, who feels the date has come for him to step into the president’s sneakers later 8 years as vice-president.

The 2 are vying to be successful President Nana Akufo-Addo. He’s stepping unwell on the finish of his two phrases, with Ghanaians hoping for a clean switch of energy to safeguard that Ghana keeps its recognition as solid independence.

Contesting the election below the banner of the governing Brandnew Patriotic Celebration (NPP), Bawumia’s primary handicap is incumbency.

Keeping a masters in economics from the United Kingdom’s prestigious Oxford College, he heads the federal government’s financial control workforce, and the collapsing financial system has tarnished his recognition as an “economic whizzkid”.

He used to be mocked in 2023 as “our Maguire” – a connection with Manchester United footballer Harry Maguire, who were acting badly at the tone on the date.

At the marketing campaign path, Bawumia most well-liked to name himself “the driver’s mate” – a word impaired in Ghana to explain a business car motive force’s associate, as he wished to distance himself from choices taken below Akufo-Addo’s attend to.

“We may be tired of hearing it, but there is no avoiding the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war resulted in the greatest economic depression in the world since the 1990s with most countries recording negative GDP growth,” he mentioned.

Bawumia has criss-crossed the rustic in a blue-coloured bus, together with his picture emblazoned on it along his marketing campaign slogan: “It is possible” – a connection with the truth that he can win, and stimulate economic development.

Incorrect celebration in Ghana has ever gained greater than two consecutive phrases because the nation restored independence in 1992, a practice the NPP says it’s aspiring to crack through making sure that it wins a parliamentary majority and Bawumia the presidency.

The centrepiece of his marketing campaign is a assurance to manufacture a “digital economy”, with talents coaching for a million younger folk in a bid to place a dent within the unemployment fee.

“Dr Bawumia’s government plans to invest in a digital economy hub and provide venture capital funding for tech start-ups,” his marketing campaign site says.

“This will include creating innovation hubs, providing regulatory incentives, and supporting tech entrepreneurs with mentorship and business development resources,” it provides.

Ghanaian political analyst Clement Sefa Nyarko informed the BBC that Bawumia’s assurance to manufacture a “digital economy” used to be his largest electoral drawcard.

“Bawumia has transitioned from being a so-called economic wizzkid to a digitalisation champion and I think that’s one of the big things he is riding on,” Dr Nyarko mentioned.

“In fact, if you see his posters in town, he has this symbol of digitalisation, suggesting that he is the man to take Ghana forward,” he added.

As for Mahama, his marketing campaign has serious about a assurance to “reset” the financial system, with the essence of his message being, as Dr Nyarko put it: “Give me a chance. At least the economy didn’t crash under my watch despite the difficulties.”

However his critics have doubts, declaring that Ghana plunged into an electrical energy situation when he used to be in place of job from 2014 to 2017 so they don’t see how a person who may just no longer book the lighting on can reset the financial system.

This – along side the truth that his executive used to be dogged through corruption allegations, which he brushed aside as politically aspiring – resulted in him failing to win a 2nd time period in 2017.

The facility cuts had been so sinful that Mahama joked on the date that he used to be referred to as “Mr Dumsor” – dum approach off and sor approach on within the native Twi language.

On this marketing campaign, Mahama – the flagbearer of the Nationwide Democratic Congress (NDC) – has promised to assemble Ghana a “24-hour economy” during the settingup of night-time jobs in each the people and personal sectors.

“All the major and most prosperous economies in the world operate various degrees of 24-hour economies.

“They come with america, the place just about 30% of the labour pressure paintings at evening; the UK (19%); Germany (12%) and France (7%). In Africa, Kenya is considering a 24-hour financial system,” a document outlining his economic strategy says.

In order to ease the cost-of-living crisis, both candidates have also promised to scrap some taxes, including the much-criticised electronic levy on mobile transactions and the levy on the carbon emissions produced by petrol or diesel-powered vehicles.

Economist Prof Godfred Bokpin told the BBC it was unclear how the two candidates would fulfil their promise as it would create a “fiscal hole”, at a time when Ghana was under an IMF-backed economic recovery programme that required the government to increase its revenue and slash expenditure.

“They’re going to face a problem when it comes to navigating throughout the IMF-supported programme,” he added.

Political analyst Asa Asante told the BBC that he expected a close race between Mahama and Bawunia.

“Politics is not anything however a competition of concepts and a referendum of your paintings. Crowd are going to peer which one will actually paintings the charm and naturally what are their information,” he added.

The political odds appear to be in Mahama’s favour, with an opinion poll released on Monday by Global InfoAnalytics giving him 52% of the vote to Bawumia’s 41.3%.

But with the poll having a margin of error of 1.9%, some analysts say Mahama could fall short of crossing the 50% mark, forcing a run-off.

Bawumia’s campaign team has dismissed the poll as skewed, saying they are confident of propelling him to the presidency on Saturday – and making history by giving Ghana its first Muslim president.