Unable to get a job as an accountant after graduating five years ago, messenger Nathaniel Kainu was forced to trade his calculator for a wrench.
The 29-year-old was busy repairing a taxi in the shade of a mango tree when the BBC met him at his home in the town of Kasoa, about 30km (18 miles) from the capital Accra.
He often spoke of “hardships,” a phrase that has become common in Ghana since the country plunged into a deep economic crisis in 2022.
It was a year when the government defaulted on its debt, international rating agencies downgraded Ghana’s creditworthiness to “junk status” and inflation soared to 54%. Adding to the Ghanaians’ woes, their currency, the cedi, has lost 70% of its value over the past eight years.
This forced Ghana to seek a $3bn (£2.4bn) bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Efforts to revive the economy have been costly, leading to significant losses for retirees and investors who held government bonds.
All this has left Mr. Kaina in such despair that he does not intend to vote in Saturday’s presidential and parliamentary elections, although the electoral commission is confident that voter turnout will be high.
“I don’t know how this country is going to be saved from this crisis,” Mr Cain told the BBC.
He is thinking about emigrating to North America or Europe.
“I would like to leave the country, go outside, live better, work harder,” added Mr. Kainu.
He is not alone. Many young people – who make up almost 40% of the population, according to the 2021 census – want to leave Ghana.
They see few job prospects in a country with an unemployment rate of 14%.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the economy dominated the election campaign.
Two main favorites of the presidential elections:
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Former president John Mahamawho hopes to return to power like Donald Trump, and
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Mahamudu Bawumiawho feels the time has come for him to step into the presidency after eight years as vice president.
Both are vying to succeed President Nana Akufo-Addo. He is stepping down after two terms, and Ghanaians are hoping for a smooth transition of power to ensure that Ghana maintains its reputation as a stable democracy.
Contesting the election under the banner of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bawumia’s main handicap is tenure.
With a master’s degree in economics from Britain’s prestigious Oxford University, he heads the government’s economic management team, and the economic collapse tarnished his reputation as an “economic wildcat”.
He was mocked in 2023 as ‘our Maguire’ – a reference to the football player “Manchester United” Harry Maguire, who at that time did not perform well on the field.
