Ken Ofori Atta Became A Loan Addict He Failed Ghana Atik Mohammed

Atik Mohammed has taken a swipe at the former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, blaming him for Ghana's indebtedness.

According to him, the ex-Finance Minister failed to help Ghana as he only relished the idea of borrowing to the extent that the nation exceeded its borrowing limit.

He added that due to the borrowing culture of Mr. Ofori-Atta, Ghana couldn't pay back its loans leading to the haircuts.

"I keep saying that Ken Ofori-Atta didn't help Ghana. He collected the monies, at a point he became a loan addict," he said on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show.

On the government's debt restructuring programme, Atik stated, "we should not be excited that we have to go for a relief arrangement with our official creditors because we could have avoided this".

"What saddens me is that the person who plunged us into such ditch, upon seeing the difficulties left his job to become an international Finance Minister. I really would have expected that he would stay on and clean his own mess," he scolded Mr. Ofori-Atta.

Ghana has reached an agreement in principle with two bondholder groups to restructure some $13bn of international debt, a negotiating group, marking a key step in the country's economic recovery under an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan deal.

The agreement, which will see Eurobond holders take a haircut of 37 per cent or $4.7 billion in addition to delayed repayments, represents the third and final step in the country’s external debt restructuring negotiations.

Atik, despite berating the former Minister for his borrowing character, however expressed his excitement that "finally the negotiations have paid off".

Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/