Govt Has Contracted Too Many Loans - Ex-Deputy Finance Minister

Former deputy Finance Minister, Moses Asaga has warned that the nation’s debt burden is being worsened by the rate at which the NPP government is contracting international loans. Contributing to the debate on the resolutions for the approval of three loan agreement in parliament today, Mr Asaga said the six-month-old government has contracted too many loans.

The debate on the resolutions was characterised by the NDC minority side claiming credit for most of the loans the government is now asking the House to approve.

At one point the Minority said they had even helped the government to contract the loans on favourable concessionary terms. But Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo countered by saying that he had used his own initiative to get very favourable terms.

After the heated exchanges the House approved the three loan agreements totalling $85.32 million for various projects in agriculture and poverty reduction. But before the loans would be approved the NDC ranking Member for Finance and MP for Nabdam, Moses Asaga accused the government of engaging in unrestrained borrowing.

The current Parliament has in the past six months approved loans totalling about $500 million. But the first of the three loans approved today was a 13.32 million dollar facility from the African Development Fund, which will be used to finance the Cashew Development Project, under which government hopes to make cashew a major export commodity.

The second loan of 67 million dollars from the International Development Agency will be used to fund the first phase of the Agricultural Service sub-Sector Investment Project while the third loan of five million dollars will be used to finance community-based poverty reduction projects.