General News of Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Source: adomonline.com
2018-10-30
Former President, John Mahama
Former President John Dramani Mahama has condemned his successor, President Akufo-Addo, for his recent comments on borrowing.
The former president when addressing a group of delegates at Amasaman in the Greater Accra Region said the president needed to apologize to Ghanaians for going back to something he criticized while in opposition.
This was a reaction to President Nana Akufo-Addo’s statement he made at an entrepreneurship forum in Nigeria organised by the Tony Elumelo Foundation that his government will continue to borrow to finance infrastructure in Ghana because the projects will serve as assets to pay back the loans.
The President was responding to a question on why Ghana goes for loans from China despite trumpeting the “Ghana beyond Aid” mantra.
“We won’t stop borrowing because even the United States of America borrows.
“Borrowing money is not aid. What President Xi Jinping offered is a $60 billion fund which African countries can access, not as aid but as loans. If you can produce a project that the Chinese think is worth supporting, you can have access to that money but you have to pay it back.”
But Mr. Mahama said such comment clearly shows how hypocritical the ruling government was.
“In your initial quotations about borrowing, you said any idiot can borrow and if today you have now turned round to borrow to invest in assets, the first thing you need to do is to apologize to Ghanaians and tell them we didn’t know; we are sorry,” Mr. Mahama said.