Mid-year budget : Be transparent on debt situation – Mona Quartey to Ofori Atta

A former Deputy Finance Minister Ms Mona Quartey has asked the current Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta to be transparent with the current debt situation of the country.

She also suggested that the government should invest in projects that generate revenue and also self-financing in order to avert more borrowing to fund these projects.

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 e sense  especially at 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