Communications Director for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buaben Asamoa, says the economical mess that was left behind by the previous government was the reason for the gargantuan borrowing by the current government.
Clarifying his point, the Adentan MP said, the economy was bleeding when the NPP took over and as a concerned government, they needed to clean and purge the system of systematic filth and malpractices, hence they needed more money to do so.
He stressed that their decision to serve Ghanaians better is the reason why the debt portfolio of the government has ballooned. This he said on Adom TV.
“Structural weaknesses in the economy and the debt profile handed-over to us by the NDC caused us to borrow to fix the economy, we borrowed to exit IMF’s Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programme, we also borrowed to clean-up the financial sector and all these have added to the public debt.”
Mr Buabne Asamoa said even though they have borrowed, they have equally and responsibly reinvested the money to bolster the local economy.
“We didn’t say no borrowing but responsible borrowing, when you borrow you need to invest it in productive areas of the economy so you won’t have to go and borrow again,” he explained further.
In 2018, the national debt of Ghana amounted to around 31.79 billion U.S. dollars. The highest in the history of the country.
