The Deputy Finance Minister-designate, Thomas Ampem Nyarko has dismissed claims that the new National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has borrowed over ₵38 billion within its first four weeks in office.
His comment comes after the Member of Parliament for Tano North, Dr. Gideon Boako expressed concerns over the government’s borrowing levels at the Appointments Committee vetting on Monday, February 24.
Dr Boako argued that despite the NDC’s campaign promises to reduce borrowing, the administration had already borrowed ¢38 billion from the domestic market within its first month in office.
“If you follow the trend within January alone, contrary to what we have been told by the government that we want to cut the borrowing and bring the rates down, this government in four weeks has borrowed 38.5 billion cedies.
“That is not a good sign to signal rates to come down. If government decides to slow down on borrowing contrary to what is happening, how are you going to finance government expenditure if you decide to go against the current borrowing and lower the borrowing,” he questioned.
However, Mr. Nyarko refuted the claim, stating that the government is rather focused on enhancing revenue generation through strategic measures, rather than relying on excessive borrowing.
“Mr chairman, I’m not too sure if the information he is giving about the quantum of the government borrowing is accurate. The briefings that I had indicated that we have borrowed on a net basis far lower than what you are putting but we will have to interrogate that in due time,” he said.
He noted that the government is aggressively going to pursue revenue generation and cut expenditure to fund its programme.
“As for the expenditure, we need to constraint it. Without that, there is no way we will be able to achieve our target. Cutting down the number of ministers by about 24 is signalling that the government recognises the challenges that we are in,” he added.
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