Dr Nashir Issahaku, BoG Governor
The outgoing National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, through the Bank of Ghana (BoG), has borrowed a total of GH¢3,546.02 million from investors, both local and foreign, to carry out its activities.
Bids amounting to GH¢1,892.69 million were tendered on Friday, 9th December, 2016 by BoG, comprising GH¢671.05 million in 91-day Treasury bills, GH¢180.42 million in 182-day Treasury bills and a 2-year note component of GH¢1,041.22 million but investors could only buy a total of GH¢1,595.56 million made up of GH¢509.25 million in 91-day Treasury bills, GH¢45.59 million in 182-day Treasury bills and GH¢1,040.72 million of the 2-year note.
On 1st December, 2016, Tender 1514 was held for a total of GH¢1,948.46 million, comprising GH¢1,126.74 million in 91-day Treasury bills, GH¢277.55 million in 182-day Treasury bills and a one-year note component of GH¢544.17 million.
Fortunately for government, all the aforementioned bids tendered were bought by investors.
For October, this year, the Mahama-led administration was said to have borrowed GH¢2.2 billion, increasing the country’s total national debt to GH¢112 billion from GH¢109.8 billion recorded in September this year.
The Ministry of Finance’s issuance calendar indicated that the aggregate borrowing amount for the first half 2016 was GH¢30,730.00 million out of which forecast maturities was GH¢27,779.00 and net issuance was GH¢2,951.00 million.
It also stated that it would borrow a total of GH¢42,100.00 million for the second half. This is made up of a 3rd quarter borrowing of GH?16,830.00 million.
This was used to rollover a forecast maturities of GH¢14,910.61 million, with the remaining amount of GH¢1,919.39 million being a fresh issuance to meet its financing requirements.
Between August and December, this year, government planned to issue an amount of GH?25,270.00 million in securities to rollover a forecast of maturities of GH¢23,853.56 million, with the remaining amount of GH¢1,416.44 million being fresh issuance to meet government’s financing requirements.
Apart from the servicing of maturing debts, most of government’s borrowing was also said to have been used for infrastructural development, and this includes the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange, among others.
The NDC government inherited a total national debt of GH¢9.5 billion but increased it to over GH¢103 billion.
Meanwhile, a lot of Ghanaians have criticized government for excessively focusing on infrastructure development while neglecting the concerns of jobless teeming youth.
By Samuel Boadi
samuel10gh@yahoo.com