For the next three years Ghana cannot return to the capital market – Theo Acheampong.
A political risk analyst, Dr Theo Acheampong has stated that the earliest government can return to the international capital market is after three years.
According to him, what government needs to focus on now, is how to restructure the country’s debt.
Speaking in an interview on TV3’s Ghana Tonight on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. Dr Acheampong said, “We are not in a position now, as a country to even go to the market.
“None of the people we owe currently will be in a position to give us money even if we go…from where I sit, we cannot go to the market at least for the next three years.”
It would be recalled that President Akufo-Addo granted an interview at the Qatar-Africa Economic Forum in Doha earlier on Wednesday and in his answer to a question on whether the government intends to return to the international capital market, the president was confident of going back into the international market.
“We have positioned ourselves to be able to go back to the International market which had been a source of funding for us during the first three or four years of our government. We will try as much as possible to maintain the discipline which is required and the most important requisite for a successful programme.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Acheampong, thinks it is impossible and has advised the government to focus on rather “restructuring our external debt.”
“It is a non-starter for me. For the President to have intimated that,” he said. “For me, it tells me that they are thinking about going back to borrow if the conditions improve. But at the moment, we only just signed the IMF programme and the biggest challenge ahead of us is to restructure our external debt.”
He suggested that what government needs to do is to, “rebuild the finances of this country, raise domestic revenue sources to finance some of the development projects and importantly, cut back on expenditure. If we do these three things, we don’t necessarily have to go to the market.”
Source: 3news.com