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Politics of Wednesday, 28 October 2020

Source: starrfm.com.gh

Be candid with Ghanaians, Ghana is HIPC – NDC to govt

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah

The NDC has lashed out at information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah over his defense that the country is not in a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) situation.

It follows a rebuttal by the minister after claims by NDC flagbearer John Mahama that management of the economy has landed the country in a HIPC situation.

The minister described the claims as “empty propaganda”.

But the National Communications Officer of NDC Sammy Gyamfi says current data suggests that the country is in a worse situation compared to 2001 when it went into a HIPC program.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra, he said: “it is important at this stage to make the point that the attempt by the failed Akufo-Addo government to blame our ever-worsening debt position on COVID-19 is unturnable and laughable, to say the least.

“This is because our public debt was already increasing at an alarming rate and had reached unsustainable levels with a debt to GDP ratio of 63% even before we were hit by the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.”

He went on “so even before March 2020 when COVID-19 struck, debt to GDP was hovering around 63%. We had already crossed the acceptable threshold and so you can’t blame this catastrophic debt position we are talking about on covid-19. That argument they make is neither here nor there and Kojo Oppong Nkrumah and government’s spokesperson should be candid to the people of Ghana”.

Mr Gyamfi also accused the Nana-Addo led government of having nothing to show for it’s borrowing

He noted, “what is even sad and bizarre about the unsustainable and catastrophic debt situation president Akufo-Addo has plunged Ghana is that this government cannot show any significant self-financing projects that their unprecedented borrowings have been used for.”

“Unlike President Mahama who can point to many tangible significant and in some cases self-financing projects that he undertook with the about GH?70 billion, he added to the public debt during his tenure in office. President Akufo-Addo can’t boast of any significant or self-financing projects he has undertaken with the over GH?138 billion he has added to the country’s public debt in the last three and a half years.”