Parliament has finally adopted the report of the Annual Public Debt for the 2018 financial year after the extensive debate at the Plenary.
The Annual Public Debt Report was presented by the Chairman for the Parliamentary Select Committee and Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah.
In presenting the report on the floor of Parliament, Dr. Assibey-Yeboah stated that the objective of the government’s debt management is to ensure that the government’s financing needs are met on a timely basis at the lowest cost with a prudent degree of risk, while promoting the development of debt market.
Dr. Assibey-Yeboah indicated that for the year under review, the Medium Term Debt Management Strategy (MTDMS) was to finance the budget deficit using domestic securities and external financing, including the International Capital Market (ICM).
He added that the implementation of the 2018 MTDS faced challenges as a result of global market developments, which led to investors sell-off in emerging markets.
The Finance Committee Chairman reiterated that, to address the external financial contagion effect of the investor pull-out from emerging countries, which affected non-resident investors’ participation in the domestic markets and posed unanticipated pressure on the Cedi, the approved strategy was redirected to focus on increased engagement with domestic investors and more active Government support, for the functioning of the secondary market.
In the Finance Committee’s report, the External Public Debt as of 2014 stood at GHS 44,530,000,000 while Domestic Public Debt as of 2014 stood at GHS 77,570,200,000.
In 2015, the External Public Debt stood at GHS 59,912,800,000 while Domestic Public Debt stood at GHS 40,322,100,000.
The 2016 External Public Debt of the country stood at GHS 68,859,600,000 while Domestic Public Debt stood at GHS 53,403,400,000.
In 2017, the External Public Debt of the country stood at GHS 75,847,500,000 while Domestic Public Debt stood at GHS 66,769,100,000.
Also, the provisional results for 2018 External Public debt stood at GHS 86,169,000,000 while the Domestic Public Debt stood at GHS 86,899,700,000.
In contributing to the debate on the floor of Parliament, Ranking Member of the Finance Committee and Member of Parliament for Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam, Mr. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, averred that there is not enough revenue to service the debt of the country.
Mr. Ato Forson argued that the country is getting to a level where it would be impossible to service its debt.
He explained on the floor of the House that the government is not mobilising much foreign exchange to service the country’s debt.
Referring to the figures of the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Ato Forson indicated that per the First Quarter Report of the Ministry on its website, revenues and export are underperforming.
Source: GhanaJustice/S.Ayisi
