Mortgaging Ghana’s oil imprudent – Expert

Energy expert Kojo Poku has criticised government’s decision to mortgage Ghana’s oil revenue for 20 years, describing it as imprudent.

His comments follow earlier remarks by the general overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Dr Mensa Otabil, who described the decision as unwise.

In an interview with Class News, Mr Kwadwo Poku cautioned politicians to hasten slowly in taking decisions of such magnitude, bearing in mind the long-term implications on the country.

“Politicians in Ghana are too much in a hurry to point to things they have done,” he stated.

“Instead of waiting for the [oil] money to now get into your account, they want to spend it ahead of time. …Let us say you borrow the money and oil was at $100, now oil is at $40. What happens is that now you need to send more oil to be able to pay off the debt you took.

“It is not helping the country and it will not help us, going forward, and the future generation will not benefit because by the time we now get to the next 10 years, we are paying debt for things that we could have waited and used our own money [for].

“It doesn’t paint a good picture for this country. The president has said in the past that people should run government as you run your household and if you go by that saying, you ask yourself: ‘Has he really run this country in the last four years as he would run his household?’

“You don’t have to be political to know that we are doing things we cannot afford and is worrying as a country and we should not do that.”