The Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam has emphasized the urgent need for a flexible environment for developing countries, including Ghana, to borrow freely from the international capital market.
He believes that the current system, whereby development partners finance countries with stringent policy conditions, is impeding the socio-economic development of these countries.
“There is no free lunch, so no developed country is going to give you grant without conditions. Some of these conditions do not provide the environment for us to build our capacity. So, we need to be able to go the market and borrow but we want the market environment to be right for us and borrow at rates pertaining to that of developed countries.”
Dr. Amin Adam was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Summit 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Minister bemoaned what he describes as unfavorable international capital access to the African continent and called for capital market reforms to accelerate industrialization and development.
“We need fairness in the international capital market so we can compete other than relying on grants and aids that come with conditions that we are unable to meet”, he further added.
He therefore urged a collaborative effort between African countries to address the perceived risk of investing in Africa.
The Minister said available data suggests that out of the $2.3 trillion allotted for investment in renewable energy across the world, only $55 billion has been invested in Africa as a result of alleged inconsistent policies.
