An Economist at the University of Ghana Business School, Prof. Patrick Asuming believes the development is an opportunity for the country to look inwardly, Although the French government has served notice of tightening loan advancement to Ghana.
There has been a significant decline in the advancement of concessional loans from France to Ghana over the years as revealed by the 2023-2024 France-Ghana Economic Report. The declining trend has been confirmed by the Head of the Economic Department at the French Embassy in Ghana, Jean-Noël Blanc citing the country’s ballooning public debt as part of reasons.
Jean-Noël Blanc confirmed that France has become cautious in the advancement of loans to Ghana. “We are very cautious in the way we are lending some money to Ghana because of the debt. But at the end of the day, there are still three sovereign loans with the Government of Ghana,” Jean-Noël Blanc said.
It is against this backdrop that Prof. Asuming has said this development means Ghana’s funding gap is going to be widened given that the current IMF Bailout Programme only approves for the country to secure concessional loans.
With France tightening its grip with the advancement of concessional loans to Ghana means, the Economist maintains the country must brace for funding challenges.
He, therefore, insisted that although this is bad news for the economy, it is an opportunity for the country to develop its internal capacities to raise its domestic revenue for development.
Prof. Asuming, who was speaking in an interview with TheHighStreetJournal reckoned that the over-reliance on foreign support could not be a sustainable avenue to fund the country’s developmental agenda.
The economist is convinced that Ghana has very great untapped potential that when properly developed can help the country rake in billions of revenues without relying on concessional loans.
“We know that we cannot continue to depend on external funding for our development. It is something that should have been obvious to us anyway. It is just a confirmation of maybe something that we have been reflecting on. So, it is now time for us to look within and let’s face it, I mean there are many opportunities for Ghana to raise resources domestically for its development,” Prof. Asuming suggested.
He added that “there’s so much untapped potential. So while it seems a little troubling to hear, it should also hint to us that now we have to put our house in order and look within to finance our longer-term development.”
