Akufo-Addo has 'borrowed 75% of Ghana's total debt since Nkrumah' - Fifi Kwetey

A former Deputy Finance Minister in the erstwhile Mahama administration, Fifi Kwetey, has said 75 per cent of Ghana’s total debt stock since the country gained independence in 1957, has been borrowed by the Akufo-Addo government in just a few years.

At a forum organised by the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) on the budget on Wednesday, 20 November 2019, the Ketu South MP said: “They [Akufo-Addo government] actually have borrowed 75 per cent of the total debt that Ghana has had from Kwame Nkrumah all the way to John Dramani Mahama in less than three years; 75 per cent of the totality of Ghana’s debt from Kwame Nkrumah to John Dramani Mahama, they have been able to borrow that in less than three years. There is nothing they can show for it”.

“And when you point it out, they tell you: ‘Oh it is because of depreciation of the currency’. Really? Is this the first time the cedi has started depreciating?” he wondered.

In his view, that explanation smacks of double standards.

“...These are people who claim they are the best managers of the economy and the cedi has performed wonderfully under them, yet when you point to the high debt, they tell you it is because of the depreciation of the currency.

“Double-talkers; lack of credibility, lack of trustworthiness and you can’t build an economy when you do not have credibility, you don’t have trustworthiness”, Mr Kwetey said.