Member of Parliament for Ajumako Enyan Essiam in the Central Region of Ghana and former Deputy Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson has disagreed with government on the country’s public debt.
Ghana’s public debt according to Summary of Economic and Financial Data by the Bank of Ghana revealed that shot up by ¢27.8 billion in April 2021 and May 2021 to ¢332.4 billion.
This is equivalent to $57.9 billion, about 76.66 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
The document revealed that, in March 2021, the total debt stock stood at ¢304.6 billion, and the significant increase in the debt stock is due to the $3 billion Eurobond raised in March 2021 as well as the huge borrowing on the domestic market.
In April 2021, the public debt stock was ¢328.0 billion. This means ¢23.4 billion new debt was added to the total debt stock.
However, in the recent Government Issuance Calendar, government is expected to slow down its borrowing in the third quarter of this year [July 2021 to September 2021] as it’s expected to borrow less than a billion cedi for the entire three months.
But reacting to this, MP for Ajumako Enyan Essiam in a tweet stated that Ghana’s public debt as posted by government may not be right, saying the figure being churned out by the Bank of Ghana and Ministry of Finance is false.
He said the GH₵332.4b figure did not include ESLA bond of about GH₵9 billion as well as Sinihydro loan of GH₵600 million, thus bringing the actual country’s debt to a staggering GH₵341.9 billion.
His tweet reads “Please note, Ghana’s public debt of GHS 332.4 Billion quoted does NOT include the ESLA bond of about GHS 9billion and the Sinohydro loan of about GHS600m”.
Mr. Forson however argued that if the ESLA bond of about GH₵9 billion and as Sinihydro loan of GH₵600 million, are added to the figure provided by government, thus GH₵332.4 billion, Ghana’s total public debt should sum up to GH₵341.9 billion, representing 81% of projected Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“This pushes the public debt of the Republic of Ghana to GHS 341.9 billion, representing some 81% of Ghana’s Projected GDP! Asem oo!” he ended his tweet on Tuesday September 28, 2021.
