Minority leader in Parliament, Hon. Cassiel Ato Forson, has bemoaned the rate at which the Akufo-Addo-led government keeps borrowing despite the numerous debt burdens on the country.
The minority leader was furious on the floor of parliament after members of the House approved a loan agreement between the government of Ghana and the World Bank for $200 million to finance the Ghana Digital Acceleration Project.
The House also approved an amount of $150 million for the financing of phase 2 of the West Africa Food System Resilience program, $60.6 million was also approved to support the Ghana COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response project and an on-lending agreement between the government and the development bank Ghana for an amount of £170 million to support the establishment of a financially sustainable development bank.
Speaking on the floor of parliament after the approval of the loans, the minority leader stated that parliament has approved a loan totalling about $710million at the time the country is in debt distress, and defaulted in debt repayment both domestically and externally indicating that if care is not taken the activities of parliament of approving these loans on May 2, 2023, will go into the Guinness Book of Records as a country that keeps borrowing at their time in debt distress.
Hon. Cassiel Ato Forson stressed that it is very essential to stop digging when you are in a hole but NPP Government keeps adding to the already existing unprecedented debt of the country instead of safeguarding the economic stability of the country.
Aside from these approved loans by Parliament, the Government of Ghana is negotiating a loan amount of $3 Billion with the International Monetary Fund which according to the President has made some significant progress and expects an agreement to be reached soon.
The loan from the IMF is expected to help boost the country’s struggling economy which has been consistently attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
