A Deputy Minister of Finance, John Kumah has rebuffed claims that the Akufo-Addo government has borrowed more than any government in the country’s history.[ads2]
According to him, the statistics and global event shows that the Akufo-Addo government was borrowing at an acceptable levels until the emergency of the devastating coronavirus.
“People may come to the conclusion that we have over-borrowed because of what happened. We borrowed GH¢3 billion from 2017 to 2019 for investments in building the economy, and we were making 7 percent on returns. If it were not Covid-19 which crashed productivity to zero, we will not be where we are because there will be returns to service the debt. But if you did investments and it gets crashed by Covid-19 and circumstances beyond you, it will now appear that you over-borrowed, but during the time that you were borrowing, you never anticipated these disastrous consequences”, Mr Kumah said on Citi TV.[ads3]
He continued that, “our debt records are not the highest of any other Government. If you can remember, in 2009, when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) took over, the debt levels of Ghana were GH¢9 billion and $8 billion in dollar equivalent at the time but the time they were handing over to us in 2017, the debt level had risen to GH¢123 billion and that is about 1360 percent in terms of increment and percentage and in dollar term, it was about $29 billion.”
He further added, “our current debt level is about GH¢464 billion as of today and in terms of percentage, it is just about 300 percent so if someone grew it by 1360 percent and you have increased it by 300 percent, I don’t see where people will say we have over-borrowed in the history of Ghana.”[ads4]
He believe that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) contributed to the country’s debt situation because “their borrowing is also part of our current debt because it is a continuous debt profile and secondly, they never got hit by any global pandemic like Covid-19 or the Russia-Ukraine war that we find ourselves in.[ads5]
