NDC increased Ghana's debt stock by 819% – Stephen Ntim

The administrations of the National Democratic Congress that took over from President John Kufuor added the most to Ghana’s debt stock, Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Stephen Ntim, has said.

At a press conference on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, Mr Ntim said: “One of the central claims of the NDC's false State of the Nation address is that this government has over-borrowed. This is not true, but the NDC keeps repeating it”.

“The NDC likes to promote this misinformation by computing our debt stock using nominal figures because it hides their unprecedented rate of debt accumulation. The best way to compute our debt to see which government has borrowed more by using the rate accumulation,” he added.

According to the party, former President Kufuor inherited a debt stock of approximately GHS5.4 billion in 2001 and added about 81 per cent.

The NDC, it noted, “inherited a debt stock of GHS 9.7 billion in 2009; by 2016, they increased it to GHS 122 billion. That represents 819 per cent growth in the debt stock”.

The NPP government, Mr Ntim said, “which the NDC characterises as having over-borrowed, has added just about 304 per cent to the debt stock”.

“The 304 per cent of the total accumulated debt under this government includes the cost of the banking sector cleanup, energy sector debt payment and Covid-19 debt”, Mr Ntim pointed out.

“Official data from the Ministry of Finance shows that the nominal debt stock increased by 50% from 2013 to 2014 under Ex-President John Mahama. For example, if Ghana owed GHS80 billion in 2013, the John Mahama administration added 40 billion cedis, making it GHS120 billion in 2014 alone”, he added.

He said: “Yes, Ghana has a debt challenge, but it is inaccurate for the NDC to suggest that this government has over-borrowed. This misinformation was captured on page 4 of the NDC’s press statement”.

“The borrowing narrative the NDC keeps propagating is a product of a misleading computation of Ghana's debt designed to misinform and mischaracterise the record of this government. Now, they have recruited their Chairman to sing this deceitful chorus”, he added.