NPP Vice-Presidential candidate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is comparing the NDC record of borrowing to an alcoholic who believes in ‘smart drinking’ despite repeated warning that the pattern of alcohol intake is deadly.
At the Distinguished Speaker series held at the Central University College in Accra on the theme ‘IMF bailout; Will the anchor hold?”, Bawumia analyzed Ghana’s impending $1bn IMF bail-out and concluded that the country's economic situation should send shivers down our spines.
In graphic detail, Bawumia told the audience that Ghana’s debt stock has skyrocketed by 700% in six years.
Breaking it down, the respected economist says government was borrowing at an average of 116% every year.
It is “really mind-boggling, the frightening rate of accumulation of debt by any standard”, he fears.
But government has been explaining that it was doing ‘smart borrowing” by investing in infrastructure.
To this, Bawumia retorted that “I shudder to think what not-so-smart borrowing will be like if this is smart borrowing”.
He added that Ghana is so cash-strapped that it could not meet its interest payments to the African Development Bank (AfDB) and has since been suspended.
He says Ghana now joins an “exclusive list” of countries under AfDB sanctions with other economies like Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Djibouti. He recalled how a Zimbabwean friend called him to say “comarade.....we are all together now”.
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