The Member of Parliament (MP) for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah has lashed out at former Chief Executive Officer of Ashanti Goldfields Corporation stating that it doesn’t lie in his mouth to declare that Ghana is facing debt crisis.
Speaking in an interview on Wontumi TV which was monitored by Wontumionline.com, Hon. Ekow Assafuah stated there were competent institutions like the World Bank and IMF which makes such declaration if their findings point to it.
The MP for Old Tafo was responding directly to a recent public lecture by Mr. Jonah that the current New Patriotic Party government continues to borrow hugely to spend, plunging the country into debt crisis.
“I will start off by talking about that which concerns, or ought to concern all of us, and that which keeps me awake at night. And it is about the state of the economy and its prospects going forward. As an investor, I know what an economy should look like to attract the necessary investment for national development,” according to him.
But Vincent Ekow Assafuah educated Mr. Jonah by explaining that “Ghana’s debt stock rose to 30% under former President Kufuor but when former President John Evans Atta Mills took over from 2008 to 2012, it moved from 30% to 269%.”
He added not a whimper came from Sam Jonah when Mahama succeeded the late former President John Evans Mills and managed it at 243%.
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He added that the record of the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government clearly shows how badly they managed the nation, and wondered if Sam Jonah took notice of it.
According to the Old Tafo MP, with COVID-19 having a negative effect on global economies, the government of President Akufo-Addo has even managed to reduce the Ghana’s debt stock from 243% to 137%.
Ghana as a nation according Vincent Ekow Assafuah, is not in debt crisis.
He noted that “we have managed our debt issues excellently to the emulation of World Bank, we have managed our debt issues excellently to the emulation of IMF. If we have debt crisis, it doesn’t lie in the mouth of Sam Jonah to tell us, why is the IMF and World Bank around?” he quizzed.
He therefore advised Sam Jonah to stop peddling “baseless talks” since he had no data to support his claims.