A senior lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), Prof Lord Mensah has attributed the increasing level of Ghana’s debt to the government’s abuse of the Eurobond Market.
This comes on the back of Ghana’s inability to repay its debts.
Currently, Ghana’s debt to China stands at 3.1 million dollars which is the highest debt owed by an African country to China.
Speaking on the Morning Starr with Francis Abban, the senior lecturer explained that the government is inexperienced in commercial borrowing yet that was its target.
“Within some few years we’ve accumulated our debts to the level where we find it difficult to pay and I will attribute it to having access to the Eurobond Market. You realized that immediately we got the HIPC within a few years somewhere around 2007. We got access to the Eurobond Market which is completely different from the kind of debt structure that took us from HIPC.
“The debt structure that took us to HIPC were kind of bilateral debts. We had no experience for borrowing commercial and commercial borrowing is completely different from this bilateral borrowing that we were doing. That sent us to HIPC,” Prof. Lord Mensah stated.
He continued: “So access to the Eurobond Market as a result of the credibility from having received the HIPC initiative brought us to this far. The first time we went to the Eurobond Market that was 2007 nobody could identify the kind of assets that we could put those money in and how those assets are paying for the debts since 2007.”
Prof. Lord Mensah however added that the situation is not only in Ghana but other African countries that went to HIPC had access to the Eurobond Market and abused it.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
