Former New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Okaikwei North, Fuseini Issah, has refuted assertions by some factions in the public that the Akufo-Addo government said it was not going to borrow.
He intimated that neither President Akufo-Addo nor Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia categorically stated that Ghana was never going to borrow money under their watch.
Speaking in a TV3 interview monitored by GhanaWeb on Tuesday, the ex-MP added that there is nothing wrong with borrowing money for development and that even advanced countries, including the US, borrow.
“Nobody said that we were not going to borrow. At no point did we say we were not going to borrow. Aid and borrowing are different.
“Borrowing is part of normal government business. No government on earth does not borrow; it is part of normal governance and normal fiscal policy. Nobody said that we were never going to borrow. It is not written anywhere,” he said.
Also, he said that the current hardships in the country can not be blamed on the Akufo-Addo government.
According to him, the main reasons for the hardship are the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and the mess created by the government of ex-president John Dramani Mahama, which the Akufo-Addo administration is still fixing.
Prior to the 2016 election, Vice President Bawumia said that there was no need for the Mahama government to borrow because Ghana had enough resources.
“I worked at the Bank of Ghana, and so I know that Ghana is rich. It is because the managers of the economy are incompetent, and so all they think of is borrowing. The NPP, if voted in, will harness resources to develop Ghana. I am telling you we can develop Ghana without borrowing, the money is here,” he said.
He has since stated that the statement he made is being misconstrued and that he meant that an NPP government will borrow responsibly.
President Akufo-Addo also, before he came to power, said that Ghana has an abundance of money needed to transform Ghana.
“God has not placed us on this rich land to be poor. Ghana is not a poor country. The money is there in abundance. It’s just a matter of priority,” Akufo-Addo said.