Seth Terpker, Former Finance Minister of Ghana
• The former finance minister has said the rising debt stock can be dealt with when the country adopts the act of reducing its level of borrowing
• He said overspending is also a factor and the country is not putting money aside to reduce the debt
• He noted that the country needs a total programme and it is not enough to be picking just one programme in handling the debt stock
Former Finance Minister Seth Terpker is reiterating the call for a comprehensive approach whether homegrown or external in dealing with the country’s rising debt stock in putting the economy back on the path of recovery.
He said the high deficit in finance is creating some level of uncertainty for smooth economic recovery post-COVID-19.
According to data from the Bank of Ghana, Ghana’s debt hit 304 billion cedis in March this year.
In an interview with GhanaWeb's Amos Ekow Coffie, Mr Terpker said, the country needs a strategic programme that will address the imbalances in the physical economy.
“For as long as your deficit doesn’t go down, it means that you are going to borrow and it is not going to update and if you are channelling much of the revenue that is coming because it is not much into expenditure then it means that you are also not putting money aside for building the capital budget and also you are not putting money aside to reduce the debt and also all these variables have to come into play. So when things start happening it becomes a boost and then you can use that to address stabilization of the economy,” he said.
He continued that: “So we need a total programme and it is not enough to be picking just one programme like the national identification number or whatever, it must be total.”
