Caritas Africa and Caritas Ghana in partnership with the Jubilee USA Network has organized an African inclusive economic recovery campaign aimed at addressing Ghana’s economic crisis.
The virtual public discussion, on the topic: “Public debts and climate crisis in Ghana- Promoting economic justice and integral ecology for citizens”, was held on November 7, 2024.
In attendance were leaders of Multi-Faith institutions from the FAITH in Ghana Alliance, advocates and practitioners from Civil Society Organisations, Scholars, Media Editors and Reporters, who discussed matters concerning climate crisis and economic problems in the country and provided possible solutions to these issues.
Speaking in the meeting, Prof. Asuming, an Associate Professor of Development and Health Economics at the University of Ghana provided an overview of the factors that led to Ghana’s unsustainable debt levels, including excessive borrowing, particularly from international capital markets at high interest rates, the financial sector cleanup, and issues in the energy sector.
He explained that the IMF concluded Ghana’s debt was unsustainable, necessitating debt restructuring before a programme could proceed.
His presentation highlighted Ghana’s heavy debt service burden, with nearly 50% of government revenue going towards interest payments, leaving little for other expenditures.
Prof. Asuming attributed the debt buildup to persistent fiscal deficits financed through borrowing rather than revenue generation or expenditure controls.
He particularly emphasised the country’s unsustainable debt levels and the need for structural reforms to address the root causes of the current economic challenges.
He said important changes were being made to the country’s fiscal and monetary framework without citizen engagement and called for citizens involvement to ensure that the desired reforms were being implemented.
He added that the composition of the debt changed to more expensive debt also led to the country’s economic crisis.
He said, “ we are now taking on more expensive debts rather than bilateral and multilateral which tends to be relatively cheaper because they will give you a longer period to pay the interest on them to pay and the interest on them are lower”.
Prof. Asuming said that this led to the government’s inability to pay the loans by 2020-2022 due to the fact hat half of the country’s revenue was used to pay loans and interests.
He encouraged individuals to get informed about issues related to Ghana’s economic structure and also understand the opportunities for engagement.
On energy, he said Ghana’s energy sector had been a major problem in Ghana’s economy.
“The energy sector has been one of the biggest weaknesses of the economy. In 2019, the government launched the energy sector recovery programme. Unfortunately what is decided to do was to absorb the shortfalls within the energy sector the short falls can because government had been given electricity subsidies and that means that we were not paying up to the level”, he said.
The Executive Director of Caritas Ghana, Mr. Richard Akurugu encouraged open collaboration to generate policy recommendations for resilience and sustainability, expressing gratitude for the participants’ commitment and contributions
On his part, Mr. Neil Thorns, the Director of Advocacy and Communications at the Catholic Agency of Overseas Development (CAFOD), said the issue of economic crisis and climate change is at a result of imbalance of power in the country.
He said that the Jubilee Year offers an opportunity to address issues of inequalities across the global world.
“The inequalities among the rich and the poor countries is vast and it needs to change. The economic system which is at the heart of that imbalance which means that you are not able to control your own debt because of the economic systems directed against your government. I think that is the change we need to see in this Jubilee Year,” he said.
He further said that during this Jubilee Year, there must be conversations about the economy.
He said, “If you start from the principle of faith, it is easier to have a conversation with people will help break those barriers and inequalities between rich countries and poor countries.”
As the meeting ended, Rev. Fr. Michael Kobina Ackon Quaicoe, the Director of Governance, Justice and Peace of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, encouraged every citizen must be concerned about the economic and environmental injustice in the country in order to find solutions to end the problems in the country.
He said, “If we a disgusted enough about the economic injustice and injustice against our environment, we will act so let us be more angry about these injustices going on economically and environmentally and we will act.”
By Veronica Sena Amenya
