Finance lecturer and economist, Professor Godfred Bokpin is challenging the opposition NDC to prove to Ghanaians where it will secure GHS10 billion funding to finance several promises outlined in its 2020 manifesto.

According to him, the opposition party which is hoping to recapture power in December has nothing to say if it cannot prove where to secure the funds to finance the various freebies it is promising.

The NDC is promising freebies such as free Senior High School for private schools, the absorption of 50% of tertiary school fees, agenda one million jobs in first term, among  many others.

But Professor Bokpin in an interview with Joy News said “without reading the document, what comes into mind is that our public debt is going to go up. But they [NDC] are saying that this will be done without adding to the public debt stock. But then you go through the entire manifesto and there is very little effort at demonstrating how the money will be accumulated to finance this without adding to the debt stock.”

He challenged the NDC to come out clearly and demonstrate how to raise funds to execute these projects bearing in mind the challenges the economy is going through.

“Until then, I think they don’t have anything to discuss. Is so easy because of an elections to say that we [NDC] are going to get GHS10 billion into the economy, even GHS20 billion or whatever; how is that going to be done”.

“We are talking about an economy where as we speak right now, our tax efforts is not sufficient to even cater for the interest payments on our debt and compensation of our employees. The projection going into next year is that if we are not careful it is going to be a bit challenging even for government paying salaries.

“Now, if you look at the international capital market that is practically on hold, so that option is closed. You look at your tax efforts because you are unable to generate sufficient tax revenue even during pre-pandemic levels. At a time the private sector needs a lot cushioning from the same government in terms of tax reliefs, how much can u generate by way of tax revenue”, Professor lamented.

“That is not the only thing. If you look at all the freebies in the manifestos and you quote them. Do you know something, we can say this to other people and get away? I think let’s get real. When I say let’s get real, it has nothing to say that you like this party or the other party.

“Let’s go to track records and see during the State of the Nation Address…either of them, promises our leaders make and the variance, how they successfully failed”, he pointed out.

He added “pick the last four years of the NDC administration and look at the budget variance between promises and actuals and you realize that the easiest thing to do on the space of the earth is to promise.”

He concluded saying “is not only peculiar to NDC alone. We need to get to the stage that our politicians must demonstrate how they have costed their promises, how that is going to impact on debt sustainability and revenue generation without over hitting the economy.”