Professor of Finance says Finance Minister's claim that the debt restructuring agreement will make $8 billion dollars available for infrastructure projects is weird thinking.Amin Adam for suggesting that securing a debt restructuring agreement will automatically free up $8 billion for infrastructure development. Professor Gatsi argued that this perspective is 'weird' and misleading.
However, Professor Gatsi, who is also an economist, challenged these assertions, saying that unless government had some funds hiding somewhere, the claim was untenable. He clarified that the $8 billion mentioned is not a readily available fund for infrastructure but rather money that Ghana would have been required to mobilise for debt servicing.
"Even if you were baptized in politics and everything you do is politics, the moment you become a Finance Minister, a Governor, an Agric Minister, a Trade Minister, your way of talking and the things you do will have to change," he stated. "The investors have lost money. They are expecting two things from you; build an escrow account and at a particular point in time begin repayment of debts. It is when those things happen religiously that the confidence of investors will be revived. It is not because they have signed an agreement," he stressed.