Isaac Adongo, a member of the Economic sub-committee of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) 2024 campaign team, has disclosed that part of the next NDC administration’s agenda would be to refocus and reset Ghana’s financial system.
He says the aim is to rebuild Ghana’s capital market to make it possible for both the government and local businesses to be able to borrow abroad.
According to him, although the next government of the NDC’s focus would be to champion a 24-hour economy to help turn the suffering economy around, it is also the party’s priority to ensure Ghana regains credibility on the capital market, both domestically and internationally.
Speaking with students of the Tamale Technical University Saturday, September 21, 2024, the Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central indicated that “even though we are doing all of this using 24-hour economy to make sure that we are able to expand production, some of the measures that we are introducing would be to refocus and reset the financial system. We want to bring back the capital market both domestically and internationally.”
He explained that the initiative would be imperative in resuscitating the ailing economy “because it becomes a benchmark for Ghanaian businesses that want to borrow abroad.”
“So, we need to build instruments that will bring back the confidence in the capital market. Now we cannot build the confidence in the capital market if we don’t address the challenges within the global financial system,” he added.
Ghana has over the past two years been prevented from going onto the international market to raise dollars from investors, due to rising debt levels, slow economic growth and low balance of payment account.
Government was shut out of that market after; it announced that it is working to restructure debts owed commercial creditors.
The Eurobond holders also disclosed that, government was undertaking some measures which will protect investors’ funds. It was expected that the conclusion of the debt restructuring was going to restore some market confidence.
Other financial observers, however, warned that it will not be prudent for government to immediately rush to the capital market to raise funds in dollars considering the country’s debt levels.
This, they argued, could have a negative impact on the economy since Ghana was forced to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for bailout due to over borrowing.
Ghana cannot go back to the capital market for the next three years – Theo Acheampong
