Story: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
Ranking Member of the Finance Committee of the 8th Parliament of the Republic of Ghana, Dr. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, has disclosed that Ghana’s Eurobond is the third-largest in Africa.
The Ranking Member of the Finance Committee who made the disclosure in a one-on-one interview on GTV’s flagship programme the Breakfast Show insisted that Ghana being third on the log block shows that the country is at a high level of indebtedness.
Reacting to submissions made by the Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, on Thursday, April 7, 2022, Dr. Ato Forson, explained that the country is experiencing excruciating hardships as a result of the Nana Addo-Bawumia led government’s reckless borrowings.
He was emphatic that Ghana finds itself in the current economic woes, due to bad policies, programmes, actions, and inactions taken by the country’s Economic Management Team and not the cause of Coronavirus (COVID 19) or the Russia-Ukraine war as Dr. Bawumia wants Ghanaians to believe.
Dr. Ato Forson, who is a former Deputy Minister of Finance questioned:
“Why, did the Russia-Ukraine war not directly impact the economies of our neighboring countries like Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Togo?”.
The Head of the New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s government’s Economic Management Team, Dr. Bawumia speaking at a forum organised by the Tertiary Education Confederacy (TESCON) of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in collaboration with the Think-Tank Danquah Institute on Thursday, April 7, 2022, took time to explain what in his opinion has accounted for Ghana’s wobbling economy.
According to Dr. Bawumia, aside from the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war adversely affected Ghana’s economy.
But, Dr. Ato Forson has challenged Dr. Bawumia’s assertion saying the Nana Addo-Bawumia led government’s unquenchable taste for borrowing has landed the country in its current high level of indebtedness.
The former Deputy Minister of Finance pointed out that the Nana Addo-led government is not the only administration that has faced global challenges, adding that past governments also faced worse challenges than the current government.
According to Dr. Ato Forson, it is unacceptable for the government to blame the woes citizens are facing on the Russia-Ukraine crisis. He said this is because other countries, despite feeling the pinch of the crisis, have managed to grow their economies.
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