NPP responsible for 41% of our external debt – Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama has accused the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) of contracting 41% of Ghana’s total external debt stock of 14 billion cedis.

The NPP’s Vice Presidential Candidate, Dr. Mahamoud Bawumia, an economist, has on several occasions attributed Ghana’s economic challenges to what he terms as reckless borrowing by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.

He had recently revealed that government in the past six years had increased the nation’s debt stock by an average of 98% per year, adding that the country risks being classified as a country with a high risk of debt distress by International rating agencies, because of the consistent borrowing from international donors.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Bjoplke5nP9SBiraJWJaIIi5GI3RdqvW”]But responding to Dr. Bawumia at a NDC rally in the Volta Region to end changing lives; transforming lives tour, President Mahama said he is surprised the NPP continuously attacks his government for borrowing when such monies are used for development projects.

“The running mate of some party the other day was complaining that this government has raised more revenue than any other government. Is that a sin? Is it a sin to raise more revenue? And I am surprised as an Economist you find something wrong with raising more revenue? Every amount that we spend in this country for school feeding and all the other programmes, where does it come from? The money does not from John Mahama’s pocket. It comes from the revenue that we raise and so if we raised the most revenue in the history of Ghana, I thought he should be patting me on the shoulder and not raising it as a sin of my government.”

He continued “Recently you would have heard that this government has borrowed so much money and has put Ghana in debt. Government is a continuum and so government leaves debt behind and other governments inherit them and pay them off; but they also borrow to do infrastructural projects so it is a rolling thing, he explained.

According to him, “if you take our external debts, it amounts to 14 billion dollars and if you disaggregate the debts and apportion it by the different government, 41 percent of that debt was borrowed by the NPP administration.”

“When you come and say NDC government has borrowed 14 billion dollars, 41 percent of that 14 billion dollars was borrowed by the NPP administration,”

He further mocked the minority in Parliament, accusing them of sleeping in Parliament when the loans the country contracted went through the proceedings of the house for approval.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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