Ghana could slip back into the list of Highly Indebted Poor Countries, HIPC, former President John Dramani Maham has warned.
He says the country is on the verge of bankruptcy due to mismanagement by the NPP administration.
He was speaking at a lecture dubbed ‘Ghana at the Crossroads’ on Monday, May 2, 2022.
“At the last reckoning, over GH¢ 500 billion had been available to them through taxes, grants, borrowing, and other sources of revenue. No government in our recent history has been that fortunate.”
“Despite this fortune, today, the Ghanaian economy ranks among the worst managed in the world. It is characterized by unsustainable public debt due to an unprecedented fiscal deficit, comparatively high and still rising inflation, a rapidly depreciating currency, spiralling cost of doing business, the ever-rising cost of living, high levels of corruption, abuse of civil and human liberties, and a general loss of investor confidence. Simply put, our country is on the verge of bankruptcy, he added”.
He further posited that the Nana Addo led administration has failed on its promise to reduce borrowing and make use of domestic resources.
“We have money yet, we are hungry” (Y3 te sika so, nso 3kom di y3n” the former President rehashed the words of President Akufo-Addo, then opposition candidate.
“In spite of the firm promise to reduce borrowing, this government has increased our public debt to almost GH¢ 380 billion as of the end of the first quarter of 2022. This is more than three times the debt of all governments since the days of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah up to January 2017.”
“A direct consequence of this astronomical borrowing is that our debt service obligation per annum has increased by 500% from GH¢10 billion in 2016 to about GH¢50 billion now. We are at great risk of defaulting on our debt repayments unless something drastic is done.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana