Professor of Finance at the University of Ghana, Godfred Bokpin, says the government has not demonstrated effective management of the funds it has borrowed in the name of the crises that have hit the country over the past eight years.
According to him, even though the public debt stock has ballooned over the period, there is not much to show for it.
He said this on Newsfile on Saturday when Deputy Finance Minister Dr Stephen Amoah sought to justify the Finance Minister’s Mid-year Budget review presentation.
Speaking on the show, Prof Bokpin indicated that Covid-19 was one of the main crises that was unduly milked by the Akufo-Addo administration.
However, the government has so far proved that there was no judiciousness in how the funds were spent.
“If we say no government has borrowed like this government, of course, the size of the economy has not remained the same compared to those other regimes. But if you look at the amount of debt this government has accumulated in the last seven and a half years or so, and you look at the real assets, the underlying assets that we have generated, I don’t think we have been prudent you can run away from that,” he said.
During a press briefing on Monday, July 1, Finance Minister, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam said Ghana’s economy is demonstrating formidable signs of a comeback.
Dr Adam highlighted the positive economic indicators for the first quarter of 2024, suggesting a favourable outlook for the rest of the year.
“Growth, as we’ve heard from the previous two distinguished speakers, is proving to be more resilient and robust than initially programmed, and the economy continues to show strong signs of recovery, particularly in the first quarter of 2024,” he said.
Dr Adam emphasised that the overall macroeconomic environment remains stable as the government continues to implement the IMF-supported programme.
“The results were remarkable. Overall real GDP growth for quarter one 2024 was 4.7%, the highest since quarter one of 2022. This growth performance is better than the 3.1% growth recorded in the same period in 2023.”