Ghana and HIPC

When it comes to politics in Ghana, I take no sides. All I really want is for a party to come into power that does something north of Kumasi. Presently, only 2% of the country’s development projects are located in its three poorest regions: the Upper East, Upper West and Northern. This, of course, has not helped the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) shed its ‘Ashanti’ or ‘Southern’ (party) image. Everywhere you go in the north, you find pockets of youth on the streets, in ‘chop bars’ and in the market condemning the NPP, praying for a regime change come election time in December. These discussions are riveting, animated and – quite often – senseless. After all, these very people are hoping that the rival National Democratic Congress (NDC) regains power, seeming to forget that for 18 years, the same party under Jerry Rawlings did little more (than the NPP is doing) to improve their quality of life.

What I do find bizarre about the ruling NPP government, however, is their apparent contentedness with Ghana being a borrower country. In fact, it seems as if party members take a certain pride in advertising Ghana’s perpetual debt. Everywhere you go in the country, there is the ‘HIPC’ insignia: on public toilets, garbage cans, schools. To the casual observer, the message – though perplexing – is clear: welcome to Ghana – we borrow money, we are proud to be borrowers, and we cannot finance the installation of a garbage can. The fact that a country has to resort to applying for HIPC funds is embarrassing enough but the way in which the government seems to flaunt the HIPC message in the streets of Accra, Kumasi and other major towns is even more embarrassing. Was this flaunting one of the (many) conditionalities attached to accessing HIPC monies? You would think that given the level of advertising, ‘HIPC’ was a local Coca-Cola. Granted, Jerry Rawlings initiated the privatization project in Ghana but did he paint signs signifying the implementation of adjustment programs, to remind Ghanaians that their country was now in the hands of the International Finance Institutions?

Welcome to Ghana: proud to be a borrower.