Features
Any justificationfor Ghana’s rising public debt?
One of the countries in the world that owes a lot in terms of public debt is the United States of America which is about the richest and the most powerful country occupying the surface of the earth.
Even though the United States owes a huge debt to many countries in the world, it cannot be said that it is threatening the existence of its citizens because it uses the money in a manner that helps to cater for the interest of the American people. In other words, as long as a country that owes huge public debt is able to invest its resources wisely and undertake productive ventures with the money borrowed, it will go a long way to solidify the lifestyle and standard of living of its people.
It is only when money that should be well invested is wasted that we can say the future will become bleak for the country concerned. If money is borrowed in huge quantities but utilised to undertake tremendous development projects which go to enhance the productive capacity of the economy, it will not be seen as waste, but a form of investment that will ultimately influence the country’s direction of growth in a positive manner.
Developmental government programmes
If this is the case, then we need to be careful about how we crucify certain governments for going in for money for developmental purposes. If a country, like Ghana, borrows so much money without a corresponding record of investment, then people must begin to show concern about this trend. But, if on the other hand, what is borrowed, even if high, is used to undertake programmes that will be in the interest of the country, then we need not be worried over such a situation.
Due to the over-politicisation of issues in this country, matters concerning borrowing have always been overstretched beyond reasonable limits of analysis such that sometimes, we wonder whether to sit and fold our arms while we could have gone in to borrow money to stimulate growth in certain parts of the economy. There is no doubt that we need to be careful about borrowing but if it is used to resuscitate and strengthen the economy for a more positive productive growth, we need to embrace it.
Free SHS and TVET
If more debts are contracted to add to our total debt stock but there is no basis for such a development, then we all have to show concern about it, but if the debt stock is going up because of investment in areas such as road construction, strengthening of the health sector, building of educational infrastructure, especially the free SHS and TVET, then we need to put aside all jokes and analyse issues in the right way so that we would all come to the right and acceptable conclusion.
Current debate
A current debate ongoing among certain individuals and groups of people in the country is the rising public debt which has hit a high level of GH¢286.9 billion. This figure appears to be very high but did not come out by chance. Rather, it is the result of a combination of factors which have brought about this huge public debt.
A number of reasons can account for rising public debt. One such factor is that if in the past things were not managed well, the result will be a rapid rise in the debts facing the nation. Debts may be accrued in form of investment or rapid construction of infrastructure to facilitate socio-economic development.
When this happens, the development that has taken place can help to generate extra incomes which in turn may cover the debts previously incurred. On the other hand, if previous accumulated debts are not put to good use in form of investment the result will be escalating the level of public debt. Again, some of the debts came about as a result of judgement debts and unreasonable interest rates incurred in connection with some deals connected with some of the power agreements contracted in the past.
Current public debt
Ghana’s current debt of GH¢286.9 billion represents 74.4 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product. On the face of it the debt looks too high but did it just rise like that? Certainly, no.
Available records show that the country’s public debt more than tripled between 2012 and 2016. It will, therefore, stand to reason that the numerous debts that were incurred between 2012 and 2016 could not be invested well as a result of which the public debt level kept getting higher and higher.
In a way, this unfavourable economic situation greatly impacted on the lifestyle of the people in the country and this together with non-availability of adequate electricity made economic life unbearable, hence the massive votes against the then NDC led government in December ,2016.
Surviving economically
The people in this country must continue to survive economically and live well. For this reason, the Akufo-Addo administration has negotiated for more loans to help construct more roads and other forms of infrastructure in form of schools, hospitals and other development projects.
The implementation of the free secondary school system which is good for the country has also affected the debt stock of the country. The free SHS, free Technical schools and free Vocational schools have led to the accumulation of some billions of Ghana Cedis.
Some of these covered water and electricity extension projects in various parts of the country. For example, for the first time Tamale in the Northern Region can now boast of a beautiful interchange. Such interchange projects have been duplicated in places such as Tema, Obetsebi-Lamptey Circle in Accra and Nsawam area.
COVID-19 pandemic
Just as things were moving on well under the Akufo-Addo administration, the pandemic known as COVID-19 hit the world including Ghana, throwing out of gear all infrastructure programmes that had been planned for the country.
The COVID-19 further affected the revenue base of the country and increased expenditures to further higher levels. This is what has led to the debt to GDP ratio of 74.4 per cent as of November 2020.
These and many other challenges have contributed to the economic problems facing the country. For many countries in the world, including France, Britain, USA, Germany and others, economic conditions have not been easy. What this means is that things are not easy. Thus, the situation calls for prudent economic management and implementation of programmes.
In spite of all these, Ghana as a country has done well in managing its economy, especially in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic which has led to the collapse of many economic and business activities in the country. Small businesses for example are being supported by the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI).
Mobilisation of resources to carry out development projects in the country has not been easy but with great determination and commitment, irrespective of the challenges, the Akufo-Addo administration is likely to make it to the admiration of all Ghanaians.
Dr. Kofi Amponsah-Bediako
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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