NO RECKLESS BORROWING

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday, January 23, 2015

New Patriotic Party (NPP) flag-bearer for 2016 election Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said an NPP government he will lead will avoid reckless borrowing.

He said in London yesterday that if elected his government will do well to move away from the high fiscal deficits and reckless borrowing that has characterized the John Mahama NDC-led NDC government currently.

Trades and Industry Minister, Ekow Spio-Gabrah on Wednesday noted that reckless borrowing by the government had pushed Ghana to seek financial bailout from the International Monitory Fund.

“One of the challenges we’ve had as a country and one of the reasons why we are in discussions with the IMF is that for many years, we just chose to borrow and borrow just because there are many banks in the world which were ready to give you loans if you are credit worthy,” Spio told a conference in Accra.

The current NDC administration had pushed Ghana’s debt to about GHC69.9billion as at September 2014 from GHC9.5billion in 2009 an increase of over 600%.

Nana Akufo-Addo was addressing one of Britain’s leading think tanks Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs at a roundtable discussion on the theme, “Developing Ghana – Policies for Prosperity”.

Ghana’s former Attorney-General and later Foreign Minister was one of the few experienced African politicians who were invited to discuss democracy and governance as part of the UK’s 750^th anniversary of first Westminster parliament and 800 years since the sealing of Magna Carta and Chatham House also invited him to discuss Ghana’s development.

Fiscal Discipline

Nana Akufo-Addo said his government would ensure fiscal discipline and macro-economic stability, strive to curb inflation and bring down interest rates.

Additionally, an NPP government, he said, would introduce a ‘deliberate’ policy measure to achieve financial inclusion by moving the majority of citizens from cash to electronic payments (debit cards) for transactions.

"We need a national database that identifies every citizen with an address," the experienced politician said.

Nana Akufo-Addo further said an NPP government will assist in what he called the formalization of the economy, spread the tax burden and use up-to-date statistics for planning as well as increase savings in the financial system in a dramatic fashion.

Ghanaians’ Trust

He said he strongly believes Ghanaians are reposing their trust in him to lead Ghana into prosperity as President.

"My own sense is that the Ghanaian people have come to trust me. Contrary to the propaganda, they know that I will not put my ambition and selfish interest before the well-being of the country,” he said.

Sincerity

“They (Ghanaians) know I have been sincere and consistent with what I believe we must do to bring about prosperity for everyone,” he said in response to a question by Dr. Alex Vines OBE, Head of the Africa Programme at the think tank.

Explaining why he believed Ghanaians had reposed trust in him, Nana Akufo-Addo said “When I go around the country, I sense this and it is like, after all let us give him a chance for him to show what he can do."

NPP/ NDC Records

He said that Ghanaians now have a clearer scale to measure the 8 years of NDC administration to the NPP's and was optimistic the people were becoming convinced that “we in the NPP can be trusted to better manage the economy and create the opportunities for prosperity.”

He reassured the invited gathering, composed of high-level business executives, diplomats and policy analysts, that his vision of ensuring “education for all” school-going children was going to be vigorously pursued when elected, saying "value of having an educated population is more than the cost."

The NPP flag-bearer said his administration will pay what he called ‘critical attention’ to technical education “in this critical phase of our development” with a "major emphasis on science and technology, which will feature heavily."

Executive vs legislature

He also lamented the current “governance arrangement” in Ghana where Parliament, he said, is seemingly subservient to the Executive, calling for a greater oversight control over the Executive in the use of public funds.

He said it was the duty of everyone in the position of authority to seek to help “raise rapidly the quality of life of the mass of our people.”

He also said there was a national consensus to enhance the integrity of the electoral system for 2016 and beyond and said the party he is leading will do it part to get better and fairer election process.