President Mahama: Speaks to justifies Ghana's huge public debt

President John Dramani Mahama has discounted claims that his administration is only interested in piling up the country's debt stock to the detriment of the good of the country.

Explaining the nation’s current debt stock at a forum with National Democratic Congress (NDC) faithful in Cape Coast, President Mahama indicated that debts owed by state enterprises have been added to the country’s debt stock thus shooting up the figure astronomically.

The Minority in Ghana’s Parliament earlier accused the Mahama administration of accumulating more debt; a situation they say is dangerous for the nation.

President Mahama who is on a tour of the Central Region to canvass votes to lead the NDC in the 2016 election told party supporters that the debt stock is not huge as being reported.

He argued that the computation by the Minority is not a fair representation of happenings.

“All the debts of the state-owned enterprises have been added to the public debt, so the debt of GHAPOHA and the rest have been added, it didn’t use to be so. Formerly, you calculate the debt the country owes separately from the state-owned enterprises, but now in the agreement of the IMF, they’ve added all the state-owned enterprises debts to the public debt except GNPC.”

He said: “that is why the public debt [stock] as at the end of July stood at 62.7% but that is not highly distressed. So we presented the public debt management plan to the IMF, and we agreed together. And what we are doing is, we are putting GHAPOHA and all of them to be able to borrow on their balance sheets so that in future they don’t continue to pile their debts on the government’s debt.”