Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has cautioned that the sharp rise in Ghana’s public debt—by more than GH¢70 billion within just three months—shows that the country’s economic fundamentals remain fragile, despite earlier assurances of recovery.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Newsite, the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Economy and Development Committee said recent developments have confirmed concerns he and others previously raised about the true state of the economy. He warned against celebrating short-term improvements in headline figures that do not reflect deeper structural reforms.
According to him, earlier reductions in debt levels were largely the result of temporary factors such as the appreciation of the cedi and the effects of debt restructuring, rather than deliberate changes in fiscal discipline or monetary policy.
He explained that once the cedi depreciated by about 20 per cent over the past three months, those temporary gains were quickly erased, pushing the country’s debt stock up by roughly GH¢70 billion. He noted that about GH¢50 billion of this increase was driven mainly by exchange rate movements, which raise the cedi value of Ghana’s foreign-denominated debt even without new borrowing.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah stressed that the situation highlights the vulnerability of the economy, arguing that the underlying structure has not changed significantly. “A small depreciation in the currency has reversed the gains because the fundamentals remain weak,” he said.
He further pointed to other contributors to the rising debt, including a US$360 million facility from the World Bank, which he claimed the government presented as a financing arrangement rather than a loan when it was submitted to Parliament. In addition, he said about US$1 billion in restructured debt is now being capitalised and recorded as new disbursements, even though no fresh funds have actually entered the economy.
In his view, these accounting treatments, combined with currency depreciation, have masked the true challenges facing the economy. He maintained that without meaningful fiscal and monetary reforms, Ghana will continue to see sharp swings in its debt levels whenever external conditions change
