Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has explained why his government decided to admit Ghana into the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative despite concerns that the move would make the country appear poor and financially weak.
In an interview with Joy News’ Evans Mensah, Kufuor said he chose to be honest about the state of the economy when he took office in 2001 rather than allow national pride to prevent the country from receiving the support it needed.
He acknowledged that the decision was controversial, including within his own government, because some people considered it embarrassing for Ghana to publicly admit its financial difficulties.
“It wasn’t unanimous because even within my own government, the whole idea was admitting to your utter poverty to the whole world,” he said.
Kufuor explained that Ghana had become heavily indebted and struggled to attract credit, making it difficult to finance essential national needs.
“Nothing seemed to work for us. No creditor would give anything to us. Even our own brothers of Nigeria wouldn’t continue to supply us the crude oil to refine,” he recalled.
He said he believed the country had to acknowledge the reality of its economic situation before it could begin to recover.
“The thing that I thought would make the relations workable was to tell the factual truth of the state of affairs as we found it,” he said.
According to Kufuor, the HIPC initiative offered a way for countries facing severe debt problems to receive support and work towards restoring their economies.
He said his government wanted to use the opportunity to attract investment and development support for areas such as education, infrastructure and healthcare, while creating employment opportunities for young people.
Kufuor maintained that national pride should not stand in the way of practical decisions needed to improve people’s lives.
“I decided that I would rather bite the bullet, no matter what people would say. I wouldn’t stand on empty pride,” he said.
He added: “Proud and poor, I said that wasn’t a policy to follow.”
“You swallow your pride and go pragmatic and change things to better the lot of your nation,” he said, explaining the thinking behind the decision.
