President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has defended the country’s debt levels since his administration assumed office in 2017.
According to the president, the debts the country was servicing were not only contracted during the period of his administration.
“Let me state emphatically that we have not been reckless in borrowing and in spending,” he said in Parliament today, Wednesday, 8 March 2023, while delivering the State of the Nations Address.
The president told Parliament: “We have spent money on things that are urgent to build roads and bridges and schools, to train our young people and equip them to face a competitive world.”
He said: “Considering the amount of work that still needs to be done on the state of the country’s roads, the bridges that have to be built, considering the number of classrooms that need to be built, the furniture and equipment needed at all stages of education, considering the number of children who should be in school and are not, considering the number of towns and villages that still do not have access to potable water, I dare say no one can suggest we have over-borrowed or spent recklessly.”
According to him, he had been in a hurry to get things done, and this includes massive developments in agriculture, education, health, irrigation, roads, rails, ports, airports, sea defence, digitisation, social protection programmes, industrialisation and tourism.
”We can be justifiably proud of the many things we have managed to do in the past six years.
“As I go around the country, I hear the pleas for roads, schools, and hospitals. And I wish we had the resources to do more,” he said.
He was proud of the amount of work that has been done, especially in the road sector.
He said roads constitute the largest number of questions asked in the House by Members of Parliament.
”A large amount of the monies we borrow are for road construction.
“Shall we dare stop constructing roads?” he queried.
