The Finance Minister, Seth Tekper says government has put in place measures to prevent the country’s debt from rising further.
Ghana’s debt hit 67.1 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at by end of last year, 2014.
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) about a week ago warned that the country’s debt will rise to about 70 percent of GDP by 2016 if measures are not put in place to check government’s excessive borrowing.
Responding to the issue on the Citi Breakfast Show, Seth Tekper acknowledged the IEA’s concerns, but assured that government has adopted a smart borrowing concept to check the debt situation.
“Unlike the past statistics IEA is saying… we are putting a sinking fund in place from our oil revenue instead of consuming everything today and continue to take loan,” he noted.
He further added that government is also ensuring that that “when we borrow for commercial project, the project should pay for the loan and we should not put it on the public debt.”
“This is a policy approved by cabinet and parliament and we are saying there is a precedence. The precedence is Akosombo dam, the precedence is Tema Harbor, the precedence is Bui dam which is paying for itself now and you can see the VRA tradition running through it.”
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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana