Ghana must end culture of reckless borrowing, Apostle Kpikpi urges leaders

Apostle Dr John Kpikpi, Senior Pastor of City of God Church and Founder of the Rebuilding the Nations Foundation, has called for a fundamental shift in Ghana’s economic direction, urging the country to move away from what he described as a culture of excessive borrowing towards a wealth-creating economy.

Speaking to the media during a December 31 crossover service in Accra, Dr Kpikpi said Ghana’s growing debt burden had become a source of deep concern for many citizens, particularly as Christians gathered across the country to usher in the New Year amid economic uncertainty and rising cost-of-living pressures.

He criticised what he described as reckless borrowing under the New Patriotic Party government, singling out the funding model for the Free Senior High School programme as an example of borrowing for consumption rather than investment.

“As a nation, we just borrowed to consume and borrowed money to use to feed school children in our SHS free SHS programme was being funded from international sources on borrowed money. We should never have done that,” he said.

Dr Kpikpi argued that loans contracted by the state were often mismanaged or diverted, undermining their intended purpose and worsening Ghana’s fiscal position.

“And sometimes we borrow, and not only do we consume it, we actually even mismanaged and steal the money so the money doesn’t get into even the projects that we designed them, we designed to put the money into. So there has been very poor stewardship in the management of finances… There should be no borrowing for consumption as a nation. No, no, no,” he added.

According to the cleric, borrowing should only be justified when it is tied to projects capable of generating economic returns that can be used to service and repay the debt.

Dr Kpikpi said programmes such as Free SHS should not be financed through loans, stressing that borrowing must be directed at ventures that create long-term value.

“If you borrow 10 million Ghana cedis and you invest it in a school building… you make more money. You can pay that money back very easily,” he said.

He further called for a reset of Ghana’s economic policy mindset, warning against the country being seen as a perpetual debtor on the international stage. He urged both leaders and citizens to embrace fiscal discipline and redirect national focus towards productive sectors of the economy.

“We shouldn’t borrow money to buy food. We shouldn’t borrow money for all these things we’re doing, but rather, whenever we borrow, it should be invested in businesses or in projects that produce wealth as a result,” he said.

Dr Kpikpi also urged government to take deliberate steps to slow down borrowing and begin reducing the country’s existing debt stock.

“We have to start taking steps to reduce it… we must minimize borrowing from now on. Let’s not keep adding to it. Rather, let’s find ways of reducing this debt burden. We can do it with very good fiscal policies and also, particularly investing in productive circuits of the economy agriculture, industry, business… so much money that we can begin to pay back our debt,” he stated.

He stressed that Ghana should reposition itself as a nation known for productivity and wealth creation rather than unsustainable debt accumulation.