According to John Boadu, General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, despite the country’s soaring debt stock of 334 billion Ghana cedis, the New Patriotic Party has done a better job of managing the country’s debt portfolio.
Mr. Boadu was speaking at a press conference in Mfantseman, Central Region, to launch the training of party communicators in order to equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively communicate government policies and programs that will resonate with the electorate.
“All the arguments we get, if you want to use nominal figures, our situation is far better than when the NDC was there, if you want to use debt to GDP ratio, our situation is far better, if you even want to discount to dollar terms, our situation is far better than when the NDC was there because before leaving power in 2009, the total debt stock was 9 billion Ghana cedis, and the cedi was even stronger than the dollar at the time,” he said.
“However, by the time the NDC left in 2016, the total debt had risen to more than 120 billion Ghana cedis, a 1500% increase.”
Mr. John Boadu went on to say that the impact of Covid-19 on Ghana’s debt accumulation cannot be overstated, as the government had to spend an additional 25 billion Ghana cedis on Covid-related issues.
“As we speak, our debt stock as a percentage of GDP is 76 percent, and this is clearly due to the fact that in 2020 alone, due to Covid, we incurred costs that we were not expecting to incur.”
“Expenditure on Covid-related items amounted to nearly 14 billion Ghana cedis.” Revenues from imports and exports were expected to be around 11.9 billion Ghana cedis due to lockdowns throughout the country and around the world.
“The combined effect is approximately 25 billion Ghana cedis in 2020 alone, and this is only in reference to central government expenditure on Covid.”
He emphasized the importance of party communicators staying up to date on facts in order to counter the National Democratic Congress’s misinformation and propaganda (NDC).
He urged communicators to make a concerted effort to dispel misinformation about the E-levy and hinted that projects funded by the E-levy would be labeled so that everyone could see what the funds collected were used for.
Meanwhile, the training of NPP communicators marks the start of a concerted effort to strengthen and empower communicators across the country in order to help energize the party’s grassroots.