Focus on domestic borrowing as a way to manage Ghana’s debt stock – Economist

• Dr Adu Sarkodie has called on government to implement more domestic borrowing measures

The economist believes the move will reduce the country’s high debt to Gross Domestic Product ratio

• The IMF has pegged Ghana's debt to GDP ratio at 78% ending December 2020

Economist, Dr. Adu Owusu Sarkodie has admonished government to shift its focus on domestic borrowing as a measure to reduce excessive borrowing.

According to him, this would further reduce the country’s debt to Gross Domestic Product ratio and maintain a low debt stock.

In an interaction with Joy Business monitored by GhanaWeb, Dr Owusu Sarkodie called for an intensified revenue mobilization of the country’s domestic resources.

“Government must slow down with the borrowing. If anything, we should do more domestic borrowing than foreign borrowing. And with the domestic borrowing, we know we can do the cedi denominated borrowing where we can allow foreigners to bring in dollars or other foreign currencies to demand our local bonds here,” he noted.

“Another option is to intensify the domestic resource mobilization which I’m sure is the only viable way to go now because we cannot be borrowing at the rate that we are now. So, the best way to go is domestic resource mobilization,” he added.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund has said Ghana’s debt stock ending December 2020 was 78 percent. A figure that was higher than government’s 76.1 percent as presented in its 2021 budget statement.