The National Democratic Congress is accusing the Akufo-Addo Government of adding over 3 billion cedis monthly to Ghana’s public debt stock within the last three years.
The World Bank is on record to have cautioned Ghana against excessive borrowing as the total debt stock of the country hits 214.9 billion Ghana Cedis. Speaking at a public forum on the matter in Accra yesterday, Bolgatanga Central MP, Isaac Adongo described the rising debt stock as scary.
“The NDC was adding an average of GHS1.15 billion to our public debt every month and a total of GHS13billion a year but President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is adding GHS3billion every month and GHS36billion a year and quite clearly, the numbers are showing a very scary picture”.
Mr. Adongo was speaking at a public forum organized by the Coalition For Restoration (CFR) on the theme “Assessing the three year reign of President Akufo-Addo” yesterday, 25th February 2020 at the Karma Conference Center, Labone, Accra.
The minority spokesperson on Agriculture, Eric Opoku speaking at the same event also alleged that the plight of cocoa farmers has worsened under the current administration.
“Since this government assumed office, they have never paid any pesewas to any cocoa farmer in this country as a bonus. In fact, under our watch, we used to pay GHS5 per bag bonus to farmers and immediately they assumed office, they abolished it. The producer price of cocoa in the last 20years in Ghana is a clear testament to President Mahama’s superior record in the promotion of the welfare of cocoa farmers as captured below”.
Ghana’s debt stock
Ghana’s rising debt stock continues to be a source of concern for economic watchers who believe the situation makes the economy more vulnerable to shocks such as commodity price changes on the international market due to dependence on primary commodity exports.
In spite of the improvements in Ghana’s economic fundamentals in recent years and reports of economic growth, the country’s debt per capita continues to rise.
Figures from the Bank of Ghana indicate that the country’s public debt reached GH¢ 214.9 billion as of November 2019.
The data shows that between May and July this year Ghana’s debt stock increased by 5.5 billion cedis.
By May 2019, the debt stock was at 200 billion cedis.
Comparing the debt stock to the same period in 2018, the figure was at 159.7 billion cedis which represented 53.5 percent of the GDP at the time.
A breakdown of the debt stock shows that the external component was at 20.4 billion dollars representing 31 percent of GDP.
The domestic side is made up of 98 billion cedis representing 28.4 percent of GDP.
It is suggested that our debt stock is in such dire straits that an impending catastrophic failure of the economy may be imminent.
