Come clean on Ghana's debt portfolio during February 7 lecture - Dr. Kofi Amoah dares Bawumia

Dr. Kofi Amoah, an economist and businessman has challenged Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia to speak to Ghana's overall debt portfolio.

His call comes ahead of the February 7 public lecture Bawumia is expected to deliver at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).

According to Dr. Amoah, who has been vocal in recent times on national politics and the state of the economy; Bawumia must during the lecture spell out Ghana's debt, more so because that figure should not be a secret.

"Without coming clean with Ghanaians as to the level of debt: multilateral, bonds, domestic loans etc contracted by the NPP govt under their watch, we must consider him to be untruthful and deceitful and Ghanaians must not make another mistake in not prioritizing transparency, accountability and honesty in their leaders," he told GhanaWeb.

"Ghana must be told in no uncertain terms the total debt load of the country by the VP, deputy chair of Cabinet and head of the Economic Mgmt Team … he is definitely in the know and must be honest with us, especially due to his interest to preside as the president of the nation," he stressed.

Bawumia's upcoming lecture according to an advertisement shared by his team is themed: "Ghana’s Next Chapter: Selfless Leadership and bold solutions for the future."

The Vice President is widely expected to speak on the 2024 elections, his political vision and that of the NPP going into the polls and possibly to touch on the state of the economy which the government insists is rebounding strongly.

Ghana's debt stock - BoG records

Ghana earlier in January secured a second tranche of US$600 million from the International Monetary Fund under its bailout programme after reaching a deal to restructure $5.4 billion of loans with its official creditors.

Spiralling debt servicing costs had prompted the nation to embark on a restructuring a year ago, a Reuters report stated.

November 2023 figures released by the Bank of Ghana has showed that Ghana’s public debt declined to GH¢567.3 billion as of September 2023.

This represents 66.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) depicting a GH¢14.2 billion decline compared to the GH¢581.5 billion recorded in June 2023.

According to BoG' Summary of Economic and Financial Data for November 2023, the country’s public debt rose comparatively by GH¢8.5 billion since January 2023 and GH¢88.5 billion since September 2022.

The data also showed that the total debt stock in US dollar terms was pegged at US$51.0 billion as of June 2023.

In terms of Ghana’s external debt, the figure was GH¢326.7 billion (US$29.4 billion), while domestic debt accounted for GH¢240.6 billion.

This further represented a decline in both external and domestic debts declining marginally in June 2023. For the period, external debt decreased to GH¢1.9 billion from GH¢328.6 billion in June 2023 to GH¢326.7 billion in September 2023.

For domestic debt, Ghana witnessed the figure decline by GH¢12.3 billion, compared to the June 2023 figure of GH¢252.9.3 billion for the same period.

In addition to the figures, Ghana’s nominal Gross Domestic Product was pegged at GH¢854. 8 billion as of September 2023, up from the GH¢610.2 billion recorded in September 2022.

SARA

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