John Mahama

Be concerned about government’s high rate of borrowing - Mahama

Gertrude Ankah Politics Aug - 23 - 2020 , 22:56

Former president John Dramani Mahama is calling on Ghanaian youths to be concerned about the rate at which the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government is borrowing.

Describing the level of borrowing of the NPP government as a “tragedy”, Mr Mahama said the lives of the next generation is in danger if government’s rate of borrowing is not curtailed, because a lot of the money being borrowed will be paid by the next generation.

According to him, Ghana’s debt increased from ¢120.3 billion in December 2016 to ¢236.1 billion by 31st March 2020.

Speaking in an interview on TV XYZ and monitored by Graphic Online on Sunday, the former president said, “A lot of these debts are not going to be paid by this generation, they are going to be paid by our children and our children’s children. And so the young people must be concerned about the rate at which the government borrows”.

“The tragedy is that the rate of borrowing and the money that have been added to the public purse one will expect that you will see a much improvement. One, items of social and economic infrastructure and two, items of economic prosperity but that hasn’t happened” he stated.

He added that President Akufo-Addo has nothing to show although he keeps borrowing. “People feel more economically disadvantaged today than they did in the past. People don’t see any new development. I mean, we don’t see the schools, we don’t see the hospitals, we don’t see extension of electricity, indeed, this government in the four years has added just 1 per cent of electricity access. Water access, we are in danger of falling back”.

Touching on the GH¢54 billion borrowed under his administration, Mr Mahama said it was used to “expand the ports, we built railways, we did roads, we built schools, we did hospitals, we extended water, we extended electricity and people physically see what that money was used for. Unfortunately in this case, you don’t see anything.”

“The question is that what do they have to show for the money they borrowed. They borrowed three times more than I did in my time...When you ask them they, say Free SHS but free SHS is not funded from borrowing. That is the mistake they make. It is funded from our share of oil revenue. So it can’t be the cost of GH¢140 billion. What has happened is this government has borrowed for consumption and that is the tragedy”, he lamented.