Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has shut down critics of the Ghana Beyond Aid Policy who says the dormancy of the policy marked its death.
Appearing before an 8-member ad-hoc committee probing allegations levelled against him for which a section of MPs in the House are demanding his removal, the Minister said Ghana is currently going through turbulent times but would soon make a bounce.
Member of Parliament for the North Tongu Constituency in the Volta Region, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa confronted the Minister, and read portions of the Minister’s book, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Values, and he asked why Mr. Ofori-Atta had gone contrary to his beliefs and the Government’s Ghana Beyond Aid agenda to plunge the country into further debt.
Quoting from page 63 of the book, Mr. Ablakwa read: “I also feel deep in my heart that Ghana has a destiny with greatness and that, our lot is not one of squalor, disempowerment, and lack of opportunities but of peace, prosperity and progress. But we must free ourselves from dependence and unprogressive elements of our culture, government, poverty, donors, foreign investments, and indeed, from all dependencies”
Ablakwa continued to ask what happened to such fine ideas upon assuming the position of Finance Minister and “ballooned Ghana’s debt stock from GH¢120 billion to GH¢450 billion through reckless borrowing.”
Responding to Mr. Ablakwa, the Finance Minister said the dream of a Ghana Beyond Aid is still well and alive, but is currently being impeded by external economic factors.
“We came believing in President Akufo-Addo’s ambition of a Ghana beyond aid then fought very hard until the incident of the pandemic came, but I still believe in the Ghanaian capacity to hold ourselves out of it.”
Ken Ofori Atta defended Ghana’s borrowing spree, saying it happened at a time the Government was left with no other options than to borrow to keep the economy alive.
“At a point in time, with thirty million people, our revenues have not been achieved, we were being downgraded, and our ability to go to the international capital market was in jeopardy.”
He quickly added that Ghana’s borrowing has no bearing on the Government’s Ghana Beyond Aid policy because they “are currently taking measures to recapture and go back to the economic relief we were able to achieve in 2017 to 2020.”