The former Municipal Chief Executive of the Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly, Alhaji Alidu Seidu has described as baseless the hue and cry about Ghana’s ballooning public debt insisting the government used cash and not cowries to execute its projects and policies.
Ghana borrowed GH¢47.4 billion in the first two months of the year 2024 effectively raising the countries public debt to GH¢658.6 billion by the end of February.
This has generated concerns among economic watchers and the opposition National Democratic Congress with fears the country’s Debt to GDP ratio of 62% could inch into unsustainable levels that drove the country into the current IMF Program.
Taken a swipe at the opposition National Democratic Congress, Alhaji Alidu Seidu questioned how the opposition thought the Nana Agyemang Prempeh I airport, the free Senior High School and other infrastructural projects and social programs were funded.
“We are all talking about the Nana Agyemang Prempeh I Airport project but was it funded with cowries?” he queried,
“Under the whole eight years of the NDC, how many national identity cards were printed. Did we do that with cowries?”
“The GPS address system is a game changer. All of these things we see comes with a cost. We didn’t use cowries,” he lashed out while speaking on Kumasi based Orange FM.
Alidu Seidu recounted the excitement in the family of a former beneficiary of the Free SHS who received his first pay after gaining employment in a public institution.
“Your government told us he will cancel nursing and teacher trainee allowances even if it cost him an election, today those allowances are back. We used money not cowries,” he went on.
Alidu Seidu also took the opposition NDC on; over Ghana’s youth unemployment bulge which hit 14.6% in the third quarter of the year 2023.
“You say unemployment is on a skyrocketing rate but we created 45 new municipalities and districts. We sent people there to work,”
“When we did the double track system, more teachers were recruited. We created sixteen regions and people are there working,”
“We have middle belt, northern and Coastal Development authorities. All these bodies recruited people who were sent to work and they are paid,” he contended.
The former MCE who admitted times were hard however insisted the Akufo Ado administration had laid the foundations for a rebound of the economy.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Ivan Heathcote–Fumador
