Gov’t borrowed Ghc246 billion but spent less than Ghc18 billion on all social interventions – Economist

Gov’t borrowed Ghc246 billion but spent less than Ghc18 billion on all social interventions – Economist

Respected Development Economist with the University for Development Studies Prof Michael Ayamga-Adongo has revealed that the Government of President Nana Akufo-Addo has added a staggering GHC 246 billion to the public debt but spent less than GHC 18 billion on all its social intervention programmes such as the Free Senior High School, the School Feeding Programme and others.

This massive borrowing, he noted, is why Ghana has become a debt distress economy – an economy struggling to pay its debts.

With Ghana’s decision to seek an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme to save the economy from collapse, Prof Ayamga-Adongo is afraid these social interventions may be scrapped.

“Between 2017 and now, this government added a whooping 246 billion Ghana Cedis to the debt stock. That is why we are called a debt distress economy. If you want you can add the close to 14 billion GHS we got to mitigate the impact of Covid-19. It spent less than 18 billion GHS on all its social interventions. Now that the economy is in distress guess who pays the price? the social interventions may just be the first in line to go,” he wrote.

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Government communicators have said that the Government is seeking an IMF bailout because of the impact of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine Crisis, notwithstanding which it has continued to implement its social intervention programmes. But Prof Ayamga-Adongo’s statement seems to contradict that assertion.