Mahama Rejects Debt Cancellation For Ghana

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Former President John Mahama has launched a fresh attack against the government for seeking debt forgiveness.

Mr Mahama has discarded his patriotic toga going saying the decision of the Akufo-Addo government to seek debt cancellation was going to affect future generations.

According to him, he is strongly against such a decision by the government since the foreign bodies who usually give loans to Ghana will stop giving out fresh loans in the future and it’s going to affect the next generation.

Mr. Mahama said this when addressing NDC delegates at Lower Manya Krobo in the Eastern Region during his three-day campaign tour of the region which begins today.

He said, “We (Ghana) have declared bankruptcy, saying we can’t pay our debts and so our Minister for Finance is going around begging everybody to forgive us some of our debts, and for me”.

According to him, “I tell the young people that it’s going to affect you. Because tomorrow, when you become President or a Member of Parliament and you go to look for money for developmental projects. The people will tell you that your father and your father’s people came and took loans from us and they didn’t pay so we won’t give you”.

He added that” If you borrow money and you didn’t pay when you go and ask for some again, will they give you? Mahama asks the NDC delegates and they respond “Nooo”, they won’t, adding that “So Ghanaians are looking up to you (NDC Members) to rescue them from the current economy hardship of the Akufo-Addo government”.

Mr. Mahama said after 66 years of Ghana’s independence, the country is currently bankrupt due to the bad economic policies of the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia Administration, adding it’s only the NDC who, Ghanaians are looking up to.

Former President Mahama also took on Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and other persons who were part of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government.

According to him, the Vice President and other members of the Economic Management Team of this government are now running away from taking responsibility for the bad management of Ghana’s economy.
“… they are behaving as if they were not part of it. All of them ‘dey, dey inside’. They all have contributed to the mess in which we are,” he said.

“Because when Vice President Bawumia was saying, “Our Economic Management Team, we have Professor Gyan Baffour, we have Alan Kyerematen, we have honorable Osafo-Maafo, we have Ken Ofori-Atta. What a solid team,” Mahama said in Bawumia’s mimic voice.

“This is a solid team. This is where the solid team has gotten us,” the former President added.

The Government is seeking debt relief as part of a raft of measures to save the economy and has started formal talks with Ghana’s external creditors.
According to Ken Ofori-Atta, negotiations with China are important because China holds the majority of Ghana’s external bonds.

Ghana is also currently in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to secure a $3billion bailout to help the government balance the economy to be able to access the Bond Market.

In January 2023, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it is working towards a debt cancellation programme for Ghana and other countries amid a global economic recession scare this year.

The other countries are Ethiopia, Zambia, Chad, Lebanon, Suriname, and Sri Lanka.

The move, Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF Managing Director, said was to avert any “bad surprise” on the global economy, out of which 25 percent had its trade in emerging markets territories.

“We’re working hard to press for debt resolution for these countries, and we’ve engaged with the traditional creditors, the Paris Club, the non-traditional creditors, China, India, and Saudi Arabia. Our call is very simple: Urgently we have to act,” she said in an interview.

Last month, the IMF said it is working towards a debt cancellation programme for Ghana and other countries amid a global economic recession scare this year.

By: dailyguidenetwork.com