Lawmaker for Nyiaeso, Stephen Amoah who is also a member of the finance Committee in Parliament has said the impact of the coronavirus on the local economy cannot be underestimated.
He said this on TV3 ahead of the budget presentation on Thiursday July 29.
He further said criticisms against the government over some of the Covid-induced challenges are misplaced because “We are all in a crisis that was not caused by Akufo-Addo and Mahama, it is a globally problem.”
Meanwhile, the government has been told to invest in projects that generate revenue and also self-financing in order to avert more borrowing to fund these projects.
This call was made by a former Deputy Finance Minister Ms Mona Quartey.
Ms Quartey asked the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta to be transparent with the current debt situation of the country.
Speaking on TV3 ahead of the mid-year budget review presentation, she said “We need to look at how we organize our debt management. We need to be more transparent.
“I expect the Minister to speak to debt servicing in order that we don’t leave the debt for the future generation.”
She added “We need to start growing projects that generate revenue that will pay themselves . we need to stop throwing money at some projects that don’t make sense especially at time like this when we are through covid.”
Ghana’s public debt stock is reported to have shot up by GHS27.8 billion in April 2021 and May 2021 to ¢332.4 billion.
This is according to the latest Summary of Economic and Financial Data by the Bank of Ghana (BoG)
This is equivalent to $57.9 billion, about 76.66 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
In March 2021, the total debt stock stood at ¢304.6 billion, and the significant increase in the debt stock is due to the $3 billion Eurobond raised in March 2021 as well as the huge borrowing on the domestic market.
In April 2021, the public debt stock was ¢328.0 billion. This means ¢23.4 billion new debt was added to the total debt stock.
By Laud Nartey|editors.3news.com|Ghana
