John Dramani Mahama has suggested that Ghana puts a cap on its debt to GDP ratio in order to control how much each administration can borrow.
This, he says, will curb the incessant borrowing by governments without recourse the effect it would have on the economy.
John Mahama, who, together with the NDC in an engagement with the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) Monday, April 08, 2024, accused GUTA of criticising some administrations more than others, the reason they kept quiet at the time the former Finance Minister was borrowing excessively.
He has therefore advised that individuals take keen interest in governance irrespective of the party in power to ensure duty bearers fulfill the will of the people.
“And so we must take an interest in how the economy is managed. We must not have favourites who when they are in office we all keep quiet when they are even doing the wrong thing but when somebody else is there we find our voices and we are locking our shops and I have to call them to Flagstaff House and talk to them before they go and open the shops again.
“So we must take an interest in how the economy is managed by any government and I am suggesting that, the Finance Minister will come who will do the same thing, so we must put a cap on borrowing and so if we say that our debt to GDP must not exceed 70% at any time, then we must add it to the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA) so that no Finance Minister can come and borrow above 70% of GDP,” he noted.
The 2024 NDC flag bearer’s comments come on the back of the huge sums of loans taken by the NPP government without giving Ghanaians value for their money, advising people to find their voices irrespective of the government in power.
“We must not only be interested in buying and selling and our trading. We must also be interested in what the Finance Minister is doing. We must be interested in looking at the budget that is being presented. And that’s why I expected that GUTA would have joined us from 2019 when we started raising the red flag.
“A Finance Minister went on a borrowing spree and in 6 years he borrowed US$13.5billion from the Eurobond market. Every year our Minority was saying it in Parliament that ‘you’re over borrowing, this thing will lead to crisis’ but we were the lone voices. Everybody else was quiet,” he lamented.
