Former Chairperson of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Professor Stephen Adei has blamed the President-Akufo-Addo-led government for borrowing beyond the country’s capacity.

According to the former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), the current economic predicament of the country can partly be attributed to the excessive borrowing of the current government which has ballooned the public debt to an unsustainable level.

Professor Adei, who was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the Signature Market Pre-launch Campaign at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), insisted that borrowing beyond the limit of the country is the biggest mistake of the government.

He, therefore, insisted that government must be bold enough to admit the mistake. Professor Adei added that Ghana is currently seeking an IMF bailout due to this mistake of the government.

“I think the biggest mistake they made is that they borrowed beyond our capacity to service it,” he said.

“If you are a country and you borrow beyond your capacity, you will be in trouble, of course, COVID-19 came in, and the Russia-Ukraine [war]. But the reason why things got worse is because of these underlying mistakes they made and they must admit it”, Prof Adei explained.

He told the media that if this was not the case, “they won’t be going to IMF” to seek a bailout.

“We have to learn and not repeat our mistakes by going on a borrowing spree”, he urged the government.