Audio By Carbonatix
The Minority in Parliament has been urged to reject all government loans that are not project specific.
The appeal was made by former President John Mahama who said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will not take part in any action that can cause the destruction of the country.
Speaking at the launch of the Think Progress Ghana think tank, he added that the Minority group will not rally its support behind the $1 billion syndicated loan agreement government is seeking from banks.
“Even worse is the fact that this government has collateralized almost all revenue streams and is seeking to collateralize more, including our gold royalties under the dubious Agyapa Deal.
“In view of the above, we in the NDC cannot lend support to the 1 billion syndicated loan agreement. We wish to serve notice going forward that the NDC in Parliament will not support any further non-concessionary borrowing or loans that are not project specific,” he said.
Mr Mahama said government’s failure to prioritise its needs is what has given rise to financial difficulties, despite borrowing so much.
“The real problem with our economy is not that we do not have enough money to spend on priority needs requiring more borrowing, but we have borrowed too much and a chunk of our revenues is going into servicing debts, leaving very little for anything else.
“The solution to the problem lies in taking the bold steps to restructure our debts and get some relief from pumping far too much revenue into debt servicing on an annual basis and channeling the money into serving priority areas that will benefit our people directly,” John Mahama added.
Meanwhile, Ranking Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has said the directive by John Mahama is a three-line whip the NDC MPs are going to strictly abide by.
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