FLASHBACK: Ofori-Atta only interested in borrowing money – Mahama

The former President, John Dramani Mahama, bemoaned the government's excessive borrowing.

He stated that the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori was the reason for Ghana's skyrocketing debt levels.

“This finance minister, you know what they are interested in, all he’s interested in is going on the bond market and borrowing because he benefits from it indirectly. His company is at the bottom of borrowing all these Eurobonds. He’s borrowed 9 billion dollars from the market in 4 years and for every bond he floats, Data Bank makes money out of it through properties and other things,” Mahama said.

Read the full story originally published on November 28, 2020, by GhanaWeb

NDC flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, has taken a swipe once again at the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta over what he describes as unnecessary borrowing.

The Finance Minister, he said, is only interested in borrowing money from the bond market because he benefits from it indirectly. He asserted that Ken Ofori-Atta’s Data Bank has been used as the special purpose vehicle for any governmental contract.

Mahama said Ken Ofori-Atta has borrowed an amount of $9 billion in 4 years.

In an interview with veteran journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr in Tamale Saturday, the NDC flagbearer said “This finance minister, you know what they are interested in, all he’s interested in is going on the bond market and borrowing because he benefits from it indirectly. His company is at the bottom of borrowing all these Eurobonds. He’s borrowed 9 billion dollars from the market in 4 years and for every bond he floats, Data Bank makes money out of it through properties and other things.”

He also attributed the economic hardship of the economy to Ken Ofori-Atta’s regular borrowing which he uses to fund budgets and other governmental projects.

Comparing events as they happened under his tenure to current trends under the Akufo-Addo government, Mahama claimed the NDC did not borrow a penny to finance the 2016 budget.

“By the time we left office in 2016, we financed the budget from our own revenues. We didn’t borrow GHC1 from the Central Bank. The first time in Ghana’s history. Everything! we financed the budget within 2016, we did zero central bank financing,” he said.

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