COVID-19 loans were necessary, not reckless – Amin Adam

Former Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam has defended the Akufo-Addo administration’s borrowing practices, arguing that loans secured during the COVID-19 pandemic were essential and should not be deemed reckless.

In an interview on The Point of View with Bernard Avle on Channel One TV on Monday, March 17, Dr. Amin Adam questioned criticisms of the government’s debt strategy.

“I don’t know how anybody would describe the borrowing to address the COVID-19 pandemic as reckless borrowing. I don’t know if anybody is right to call that reckless borrowing,” he stated.

He emphasized that responsible debt management involves strategic borrowing and sustainability.

“It takes a government that understands debt dynamics to be able to borrow and negotiate a reduction in debt. And so, if we borrowed from an unsustainable level, the question should be, by the time we left, were the debt levels sustainable or not?” he added.

Dr. Amin Adam also pointed out that every administration inherits and services debts from its predecessor, noting that the Akufo-Addo government paid off obligations left by the Mahama administration in 2016.

He further argued that if the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had won the 2024 elections, they would have continued managing Ghana’s debt as part of their fiscal responsibility.

“I don’t see why he [finance minister] would be running away from the issues they asked Ghanaians to vote for them to come address,” he remarked.