Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has criticised the debt restructuring programme undertaken by the Akufo-Addo administration, describing it as poorly designed, cancerous, and fundamentally unfair.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Thursday, July 22, just hours after presenting the 2025 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review to Parliament, he questioned the very architecture of the debt overhaul he inherited.
“First of all, the debt restructuring for me was not well structured, it was very badly structured,” he told host Evans Mensah.
“I say so in the sense that, you would ask, why do you restructure your debt and create such a hump?”
The Finance Minister did not mince words, suggesting the design of the restructuring raised suspicions about the intent behind it.
“Are you setting someone up to fail? No one restructures a debt like this. Because restructuring a debt by creating this kind of humps can be cancerous.”
He said the consequences of such a fiscal approach could be devastating, reminiscent of the economic turmoil that rocked the country in recent years.
“It can set the country back to another economic disaster like we saw in 2022.”
Dr. Forson rejected any suggestion that the previous government’s restructuring gave his administration fiscal room to manoeuvre.
“So the debt restructuring that they [NPP] did, I can’t give them credit,” he stated.
He further condemned the controversial decision that saw pensioners being forced to forgo their returns during the process.
“You do a debt restructuring to the extent that you deny pensioners of their savings and their dignity, cannot be said to be a good debt restructuring.”
Taking aim at the root cause, the Minister blamed reckless borrowing under Akufo-Addo’s watch.
“Why is it that government should have gone into debt restructuring when it was avoidable in the first place. It is because the Akufo-Addo government borrowed and borrowed until Ghana could not pay its debt.”
He painted a dire picture of the moment fiscal irresponsibility collided with the needs of the people.
“They borrowed and borrowed until the needs of the citizens and then the needs of the creditors collided. That is not the kind of governance we want to do for you.”
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