Former President John Dramani Mahama has said that Ghana’s current debt situation is exposing the country to very high risk of debt default. He ind
Former President John Dramani Mahama has said that Ghana’s current debt situation is exposing the country to very high risk of debt default.
He indicated that the debt has ballooned to unsustainable levels- topping 80% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) owing to the mismanagement of the economy by the government.
“Our debt has ballooned to unsustainable levels- topping 80% of GDP- exposing us to very high risk of debt default. Almost all of our tax revenue is used to service our debt and the effect has been the introduction of several new taxes.
“This has led to rampant increments in the prices of goods and services. This is primarily responsible for the hardships Ghanaians are going through now.
“This government must accept that it is their mismanagement of the economy, their thirst for consumption expenditure and the desire to spend beyond our means in order to win elections that have plunged us into the current crisis, not necessarily COVID-19.”
The Akufo-Addo administration had blamed the debt situation on the outbreak of covid-19 and other factors.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta told TV3 last year that the debt projection did not matter as much as the lives of the people for whose welfare the government spent.
“When you discount what was spent on the financial service and on the energy sector, that brings it back. I guess the question for any nation at this pandemic time is, what you put forward first,” Mr Ofori-Atta said.
“The lives of the people who then become productive or you stick to some statistical numbers as an issue from stopping you from saving lives. I think we have chosen the latter,” he added.
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