You’re not IMF, World Bank to tell us we are in debt crisis – Ekow Vincent blasts Sam Jonah

Ekow Vincent Assifuah, a first-time Member of Parliament on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party for the Old Tafo Constituency has challenged claims by the respected Sam Esson Jonah that Ghana’s economy is headed in the wrong direction with alarming rate of the public debt.

At a Rotary event over the weekend, Sam Jonah in a speech that has been labelled by some as a reflection of the state of Ghana, highlighted a number of ills with the country including the economy.

Bemoaning the debt situation of the country, the senior citizen and business mogul said the debts will ‘suffocate’ future generations.

“For the first quarter of 2020, GDP grew at a rate of 4.6%, contracted to -3.2% for the second quarter and -1.1% for the third quarter, giving an average outturn of 0.2% for the three quarters of the year adding that the economy grew at the rate of 6%. At the end of the third quarter, the industry sector contracted at -3.1% while services grew at 1.9%. Only the agriculture sector...increased in its growth rate recording 4.5% at the end of the third quarter as compared to 3.7% for the same period in 2019."

He stated: "This is telling us something, right? Even though government revenue exceeded the revised target for the year, expenditure also exceeded the revised target leading to the end-of-year fiscal deficit of 11.7% of GDP.

“One of the most alarming aspects of our macroeconomic situation is the debt crisis. As of the end of 2020, total public debt reached GHC 291.6 billion representing 76.1% of GDP, Jonah said, adding: “A nominal increase of about GHC 149.3 Billion since January 2017. In 2018, he noted "the debt-to-GDP ratio was 59.1%, increased to 62.4% in 2019 and to 76.1% in 2020. New bonds have since been issued. The domestic debt component is 51.4% of total debt while external debt is 48.6%."

The speech appears to have rattled some members of the governing party and Ekow Assifuah has gone vitriolic on the business mogul.

In a hold-no-punches interview, the former spokesperson for the Ministry of Education stated that Sam Jonah was speaking from a point of ignorance.

He protested that his comments are without merit and not supported by facts. Assifuah further drew the political line with a linkage of Sam Jonah to the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

“When we were about introducing the Energy Recovery Sector levy, we heard the things the likes of Sam Jonah and the NDC said. The UK increased its corporate taxes from 19% to 23% during peak Covid period because they needed money to run the country. What does Sam Jonah wants us to do? Go and look at the economic fundamentals before Covid. It was one of the excellent fundamentals we had in the world. Ghana was one of the fastest growing economies.

“Some countries are recording negative growth and you have a leader like President Akufo-Addo who some African countries would like to have …. Let me put it on record that Ghana is not in debt crisis.

“In fact, we are managing our debt issue excellently to the emulation of IMF. If we were in debt crisis, it wouldn’t have been Sam Jonah telling us. IMF and World Bank would have said it and not you, Sam Jonah telling us that we are in debt crisis. On what basis, grounds and sense? Baseless talk,” he fumed on Wontumi radio.