Dr. Akoto Osei: NDC is dragging Ghana back into HIPC

Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, former Finance and Economic Planning Minister has said Ghana having come out of HIPC under former president Kufuor is back there due to the economic mismanagement of the Mills-Mahama administrations.

He said “After they (the NDC) forced President Kufuor to join HIPC due to the bad economy left by ex-President Rawlings. We don’t want to join the HIPC nations again but we are there now.”

“We (the NPP) are not the only people saying that, very notable people in the country are raising issues of the Mahama led administration concerning the state of Ghana’s economy,” he said.

According to the NPP MP, the Mills-Mahama administration inherited a total public debt of US$8 billion (paragraph 94 of 2009 budget statement), equivalent to GH¢9.5 billion at the beginning of 2009. Within just 4 years, this debt has escalated to GH¢33.5 billion.

“After all this ‘dum so, dum so’ is what Ghanaians are experiencing. The Minister of Finance is now in China to solicit for loan whiles government will be drafting their budget. Are they going for the loan to draft Ghana’s budget or what?” he asked.

The Minority Caucus in Parliament, led by Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, on Wednesday presented what they consider to be the “True State of the Nation Address” at a news conference in Parliament, digesting the economy which they think the NDC administration is dragging back to the HIPC status.

According to the Minority, President Mahama did not truly tell Ghanaians about the real state of the economy during his State of the Nation Address but rather misled the nation.