We can’t borrow our way to development – Afriyie Akoto

A flagbearer hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto has emphasized the need for Ghana to stop relying on debt to develop the country as it’s unsustainable.

According to him, a more sustainable approach to developing Ghana is to do so with the country’s own resources and not always running to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.

“Since independence Ghana has gone to the IMF 17 times. If you divide 66 years by 17, you’ll get an average of four years. So, in other words, every four years we go to the IMF because we’ve been financing our development with debts, that’s what we’ve done. We haven’t been financing our development with our own resources,” Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto said in an interview on Starr Chat on Starr FM Thursday.

The Cambridge trained Agricultural Economist added: “As President, I will be able to initiate the process of restructuring the economy of Ghana by allocating public resources to benefit agriculture, with farmers, processors, marketers and advertisers and so on, that is what I intend to do.

"Because in the six years that I have been in the ministry I have seen that with the least incentives to farmers, their responses have been incredible. Farmers in the six years that I have worked with them have proven that indeed they can deliver.”

Meanwhile, the former Member of Parliament for Kwadaso believes that the Ghanaian media has not been fair to the Akufo-Addo led government.

Dr. Afriyie Akoto stated that there is a lot the government has done but unfortunately the media is not talking about it.

“The media has not been fair to the NPP government in particular. The media could do far better in propagating the successes of the NPP. Our first term, we did extremely well and the people of Ghana should have patted us on the back rather than voting us out.

"I’m confident the NPP will break the 8. In our first term of government, Ghana was the star of Africa,” Dr. Akoto stated.

He continued “The 8 yeas that I was in opposition in Parliament there was no Covid. Even the UK economy looks at what is happening there.

He stated his presidential ambition was born in February 2020 after the elections.

“The performance of the party at the 2022 elections ignited it,” Dr. Akoto.