Weekly Insight

According to the paper, on the average every Ghanaian, including day-old babies, will be called upon to pay more than 400,000 cedis for the huge loans contracted by the Rawlings administration.

The Weekly Insight quoting Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Moses Asaga, says Ghana?s total external debt alone stood at 5.8 billion dollars as at December, last year.

The paper says if it is estimated that Ghana?s population is 18 million, then n the average, every Ghanaian could owe between 400,000 cedis and one million cedis, especially when the internal debt is factored into the equation The Weekly Insight says borrowing from commercial and. export credit sources accounted for 12 per cent of the indebtedness.

Mr Asaga is reported as saying that the government has established a considerable reputation for timely debt-servicing which has provided it with the high record of credit-worthiness and access to credit and commercial financing for the growing private sector.

Mr Asaga, the paper says stated that to ensure that the national debt remains sustainable in the next century,

Ghana ought to exploit to the maximum, recent innovations in debt relief without depriving or reducing access to commercial financing for the private sector.