Former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama has disclosed that he is not against the debt restructuring programme that is being carried out by the Akufo-Addo-led government, but rather not happy with the lack of dialogue.
Mr. Mahama was answering a question at Chatham House in London on Friday, January 2023, on what his solution is to the domestic debt exchange programme, and explained that Ghana needs the debt restructuring to be able to go into an IMF programme but his concern is the fact that domestic debt holders were not consulted.
“I am not opposed to debt restructuring. What has been the contention is the lack of dialogue and consultation with the debt holders on the domestic side. I know that negotiations are taking place with the bondholders on the external side but not the same treatment on the domestic side.
“Before this whole crisis started, I advised the government and said that hold a national dialogue on the economy, give what the state of the economy is and let everybody buy into it and understand, and then after that seek a broad consensus behind the economic programme but this was never done and what we expected will happen, happened.”
He also added that his government had since 2019 been warning the Akufo-Addo led government about government’s borrowing, and not investing it into the economy, saying that is why the country is in the current economic crisis.
“We had been raising the red flag since 2019 about the government’s reckless borrowing. Going onto the Eurobond market every year for 3 billion dollars and not investing it in the productive sectors of the economy and using most of it for consumption and that is what has ended us where we are.”
