After President John Dramani Mahama revealed his intention that he is not in a rush to return to the international capital market, many economists and analysts have expressed varied opinions, and the latest to join is an economist from the Academic City University, Dr. Paul Appiah Konadu.
The economist has thrown his weight behind the President’s declaration that Ghana will not rush back to the international capital market, insisting the country can fund its flagship projects without piling on new external loans.
Dr. Paul Appiah Konadu tells The High Street Journal that Ghana has adequate resources to chart its own path if it cuts waste, plugs leakages, and disciplines its spending.
For him, if the government looks inwardly, there are enough resources to fund its initiatives without resorting to international loans and cup in hand to beg.
“We have to look at raising resources within to finance our needs. We cannot always be begging, asking for loans on international markets. We can do without it,” Dr. Appiah Konadu indicated.
His remarks come after President Mahama, during his recent media encounter, emphasized that the government was prioritizing fiscal discipline and domestic resource mobilization over quick returns to borrowing.
Dr. Konadu reminded Ghanaians that Ghana’s debt burden had become unsustainable because of over-reliance on external financing. He recounted that at one point, nearly one-third of tax revenues went into servicing debts, much of it external, leaving little fiscal space for critical development projects.
For him, by relying less on foreign borrowing, he believes Ghana can not only fund ambitious initiatives like the Big Push programme and the Agriculture for Economic Transformation project, but also ease pressure on the cedi by reducing demand for dollars to service maturing debts.
“In any case, it ends up putting pressure on us because these are loans you pay. Even if they are long-term loans, you will be servicing. And it got to a point where about one-third of our tax revenues were committed to servicing debts, and a lot of which were external debts,” he argued.
“If we can cut expenses, just as this government is doing, and avoid wasteful expenditures, avoidable expenditures, it is possible. We can avoid going to the external markets and still be able to finance the big push projects, the agriculture for economic transformation projects, and the key development policies of the government. Doing so will help push our development while also reducing the pressure on the cedi through the demand for the dollar by the government to pay or service maturing external debts and to pay interest on maturing external debts.”
The economist’s arguments strengthen the president’s stance that Ghana’s development can be homegrown, without being held hostage to the volatility of global capital markets. Dr. Appiah Konadu says the trick lies not in chasing external dollars but in prudent management of cedis.
“We just have to be disciplined and make sure we avoid overspending even after the IMF has left town in 2026,” he cautioned.
