President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama has disclosed that total debt service to be made by the country will amount to GH¢280 billion in the next four years, comprising GH¢150 billion for domestic and GH¢130 billion in external debt servicing. He noted, the catastrophic debt position has severely impacted infrastructure projects that should have been completed. According to him, 55 of such projects have stalled due to the default of debt and subsequent restructuring with a total of $2.95 billion not disbursed, expected to result in cost overrun of about GH¢15 billion.

President Mahama made this known in Parliament Thursday during his maiden address on the state of the nation. The Ghanaian Constitution requires the President to give an account on the State of the Nation at the beginning of every year in a Parliamentary session. He was saddened about the state of the nation he had inherited from the previous government. According to him, the “economy is in crisis” and Ghanaians are suffering from unprecedented hardships however they did not give him an overwhelming mandate to lament.

“Mr. Speaker, it is not my style to lament and shift blame when confronted with challenges, as others often do. My approach is to accept challenges and work hard to resolve them. Indeed, that is precisely what the people of Ghana elected me to do.

I have not come here to lament the state of our country, though there is much to lament. I understand why I was elected with such high voter confidence—to solve their problems.”

Mr. Mahama continued, Ghana is saddled with staggering debt in addition to a criminal management of resources that the restraints of an IMF programme were not enough for the previous economic managers to exercise prudence in managing the country’s finances.

“After setting an inflation target of 18% by the end of 2024, the actual rate was 23.8%, significantly exceeding the IMF threshold. The Ghana cedi continued its downward slide, losing 19% of its value against the dollar in 2024. It had already lost 27.8% in value in 2023. In addition to the public debt, which amounts to a staggering GHS 721 billion, several State-Owned Enterprises are also in debt, including ECG, which owes GHS 68 billion.”, He observed

The President also highlighted challenges bedeviling the energy sector. In his view, the challenges are financial primarily due to collection and system losses, non-compliance with the Cash Waterfall Mechanism and legacy debts. Furthermore, the shortfall in the energy sector financing has risen to approximately GH¢34 billion ($2.2 billion) for 2025 but that notwithstanding government is committed to restoring stability in the energy sector. He indicated that the Minister of Energy and Green Transition has been directed to implement far-reaching reforms including enforcing a single revenue collection account, strictly adhering to the Cash Waterfall Mechanism, and eliminate wasteful expenditures.