A minority criticizes the government for Ghana's rising debt

General News on Friday, June 7, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-06-07

The minority caucus in parliament criticized the Akufo-Addo-led administration for its unprecedented level of borrowing, which they say has inflated the national debt.

According to them, the latest report of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana puts the current public debt at nearly 200 billion GH at the end of the first quarter of 2019.

At a press conference, Mr. Cbadiel Ato Forson, a member of the finance rankings, said that despite this insatiable appetite for borrowing, the government of President Akufo – Addo does not have any money. no significant investment, unlike its predecessor, former president John Mahama, who invested borrowed funds to fund major capital projects in all sectors of the economy, including the l,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Education, health, housing, roads, energy, communications, aviation and transportation.

Mr Forson also said that the national debt of 200 billion GH represents an increase of about 80 billion GH over the past two and a half years, pushing the debt-to-GDP ratio of 56% in 2016 to nearly 58%.

"We have been drawing attention to change since 2016 for three reasons related to the Mahama era. First, there was the promise not to borrow. Secondly, the nuclear power plant benefited from a 25% improvement or increase in GDP due to the revision of the scale. Thirdly, the nuclear power plant inherited two other oil deposits (Sankofa and TEN) which nearly tripled their production and whose price increased on average by 60%, "he added.

According to Mr. Forson, at the current exchange rate, the only loan provided the government of President Akufo-Addo $ 16 billion over the period, which excludes 5.7 billion GHGs borrowed from the obligations of the ESLA. Last year.

Mr. Forson also noted that the current administration of nuclear power plants had benefited more in terms of perceived oil revenues than any other government.

He said that the total oil revenues collected between 2017 and 2018 and those expected in 2019 currently amount to 12,328,703,024.81 GH.

He added that President Akufo-Addo's government has more money than any other government and should have done much more than it currently does.

Mr. Forson further stated that the current wave of loans threatened to erode the fiscal space created by the economic overhaul that began in 2016 and concluded in September 2018.

According to him, it is obvious that the president considers the basic change as an opportunity to contract uncontrollable loans focused on consumer spending.

He said President Akufo-Addo, despite all the resources at his disposal, was not able to fulfill his election promises to the full.