Ken Ofori-Atta became a 'loan addict'; he failed Ghana - Atik Mohammed

Atik Mohammed has criticized the former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, blaming him for Ghana's indebtedness.

According to him, the ex-Finance Minister failed to assist Ghana as he only relished the idea of borrowing to the extent that the nation exceeded its borrowing limit.

He added that due to Mr. Ofori-Atta's borrowing culture, Ghana couldn't repay its loans, leading to the haircuts.

"I keep saying that Ken Ofori-Atta didn't help Ghana. He collected the monies; at a point, he became a loan addict," he said on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show.

Regarding the government's debt restructuring program, Atik stated, "We should not be excited that we have to go for a relief arrangement with our official creditors because we could have avoided this."

"What saddens me is that the person who plunged us into such a ditch, upon seeing the difficulties, left his job to become an international Finance Minister. I really would have expected that he would stay on and clean his own mess," he scolded Mr. Ofori-Atta.

Ghana has reached an agreement in principle with two bondholder groups to restructure some $13 billion of international debt, a negotiating group, marking a key step in the country's economic recovery under an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan deal.

The agreement, which will see Eurobond holders take a haircut of 37 percent or $4.7 billion in addition to delayed repayments, represents the third and final step in the country's external debt restructuring negotiations.

Atik, despite berating the former Minister for his borrowing character, expressed his excitement that "finally, the negotiations have paid off."