Senyo Hosi commends Seth Terkper’s fiscal discipline under previous IMF programme 

The convenor of the Independent Bondholders Forum, Senyo Hosi, has commended former Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, for his principled stance on national borrowing and expenditure while he was in office between 2012 and 2016 under the John Mahama administration.

 

Speaking on a JoyNews Thought Leadership programme on the government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, Mr. Hosi criticized the Akufo-Addo administration for failing to make productive use of two-thirds of the 171 billion Ghana Cedis it has borrowed since assuming office in 2017.

 

He also expressed misgivings about government’s apparent reluctance to rein in its expenditure, suggesting that there is a lot to learn from Mr. Terkper’s approach to borrowing and expenditure.

 

“When Seth Terkper was in office he used to speak about smart borrowing. A lot of people were ridiculing him,” Mr. Hosi said. “Today, a lot of people can only look back and [see him vindicated].”

 

Mr. Hosi believes the current economic crisis which has compelled government to seek help from the International Monetary Fund, should be a wakeup call, especially to the business and political elite.

 

“If we are not taking advantage of this entire plot to properly turn around our economy then we would have wasted the crisis,” he said. “As we sit now government has not shown any signs that it has learnt the lessons because we have not seen it take the fiscal actions that are required.”

 

Still paying homage to the former finance minister, Mr. Hosi added: “When we [last] went to the IMF, Seth Terkper was then in office. He was quite adamant and that was when we all started hearing about ‘consolidation’. You could see [action] coming from the head of the financial sector, letting people know that business will not be as usual. He got into trouble with a lot of his colleagues in cabinet and I don’t think he has fully recovered from that but he was doing what was professional and what was right.”

 

Mr. Hosi also urged the business elite and the Ghanaian middle class to play a more active role in the nation’s economic management by holding the government to account.

 

“Right now all that the elite is interested in is us getting our individuals bonds and our principal and coupons,” he pointed out. “What’s next? Are we going to start holding government to account? That’s the bigger picture.”