Ghana has space to borrow more, Veep responds to Akufo-Addo

Vice President John Mahama

Vice President John Dramani Mahama has in a veiled manner, responded to criticism from the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo criticism of the Mills-Mahama government's contraction of loans.

Delivering the maiden Liberty Lectures organized by think tank Danquah Institute on Thursday August 30, Nana Akufo-Addo criticized government for contracting over 10 billion dollars of loans in a 'mad rush' just two years after assuming office but with nothing to show for those loans.

He said the loans risk plummeting Ghana into deep financial crisis. According to Nana Akufo-Addo, 'at the end of 2008 Ghana's domestic debt stood at 4.8 billion cedis equivalent to $3.3 billion.

'According to the Bank of Ghana, at the end of June 2011, Ghana's total domestic debt was 10.8 billion cedis, showing an increase of 30 per cent over the previous six months alone and this was before the recent bond issue of 300 million cedis at 14 percent interest rate'.

However, in a veiled response a day later, Vice President John Mahama, who addressed executives of the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship in Accra, said Ghana has enough room for more debt without falling into a debt trap.

Vice President John Mahama warned that politicians and leaders must refrain from playing politics with Ghana's economy since it always comes back to haunt the country.

'We must not play politics with our economy because when we do so it always comes back to haunt us. We currently have a balance sheet that makes Ghana attractive to creditors. Recently Ghana has been offered credits for infrastructure developments in the productive sectors of the economy.

'Some sections of the public have expressed fear of Ghana incurring too much debt and yet these sections know that in order to transform Ghana to the next level we cannot sit and just rely on the budgetary revenues to finance critical investments.

'I wish to assure the business community on behalf of the President that Ghana still has enough space to absorb credit without falling back into the debt trap'.