Wampah massaging figures to please his paymasters – Assibey Yeboah

The country’s total debt stock quoted in the dollar equivalent is an attempt by the Bank of Ghana to throw dust in the eyes of the public, the New Patriotic Party(NPP), Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, Dr Mark Assibey Yeboah has said.

“Is shameful for the governor to be quoting our debt stock in dollars; I don’t see the basis in this, because he’s not reporting to the IMF to be dolarizing Ghana’s debt; he’s supposed to report to Ghanaians and for that matter it requires that he does it in the Ghanaian cedi.

“…What cannot be denied is the fact that the debt has valued from GH¢9.5 billion from 2008 to GH¢97.2 billion as we speak now,” he told Fiifi Banson on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.3 FM Tuesday.

Data released by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) last Saturday showed that Ghana’s debt stock rose to US$25.6 billion or GH¢97.2 billion in December last year, equivalent to 72.9 per cent of the year’s total economic output, measured by gross domestic product (GDP).

However, Dr. Assibey Yeboah who is also a member of Parliamentary select committee on finance said the governor seemed to be dodgy on the real quantum of the nation’s debt stock because he’s lately come under fire and wanted to by all means do something to satisfy his paymasters.

“The governor has been criticised for the poor management of the currency, as well as the microfinance scandals which he’s been blamed for not doing his job well. You remember during the President’s State of the Nation Address he even accused him of lacking proper supervision which had resulted in the industry’s challenges.

Capital Expenditure

The quantum of Ghana’s borrowings is going into consumption rather than capital expenditure, Dr. Assibey Yeboah argued.

The NPP, he said obtained an average of about 11 percent of the capital expenditure as a share of GDP, while the NDC is now committing a paltry 6 percent.

“Under the NDC, the share of the budget going into capital expenditure is minimal vis-à-vis the debt stock. The question is what are they using the volumes of the borrowings for. It cannot be accounted for since there is nothing to show for in terms of the infrastructure. Under the NDC government just 6.6 billion is spent on capital expenditure, while it is spending GH10.6 billion on interest payments, about 24 percent of Ghana’s GDP which will go into debt servicing.

Bawumia’s Real debt stock

Figures from the NPP running mate, Dr. Mahammudu Bawumia shows an actual debt stock of $37 billion, contesting what the government has put out.

“In the last seven years alone under this NDC government, Ghana’s total debt has ballooned from GH¢9.5 billion to a projected GH¢99 billion by the end of 2015.

What is clear is that 90% (i.e. GHC89.5 billion) of Ghana’s total debt since independence has been accumulated under this NDC government between 2009-2015 i.e. the last seven years.”