Ghana’s total public debt now stands at roughly GH¢684.6 billion. These numbers sound alarming when shouted on radio panels, but stripped of drama, they tell a more sobering truth. Ghana’s real problem is not the size of our debt; it is the weakness of our productive base.
For a country of Ghana’s size, population, natural resources, and strategic location, this debt stock is not outrageous. What makes it dangerous is that we do not produce enough, we do not export enough, and we do not have enough citizens actively generating taxable economic value.
Critics will immediately say, “How can a poor country like Ghana think this way?” That question itself exposes our biggest limitation, mindset.
Let us reduce economics to plain common sense.
If just 10% of Ghanaians are enabled to run small, medium, or scalable businesses that generate about $300 a day in turnover, not profit, and government captures only 25% through taxes, levies, and indirect taxes, Ghana could generate close to $90 billion annually. That level of revenue would comfortably fund infrastructure, social services, and dignified public sector wages without excessive borrowing.
Now, the first easy attack. “$300 a day is unrealistic.”
It is not. A provision shop, small food processor, transport operator, agro processor, trader, or service business can easily turn over that amount daily if demand is steady and costs are controlled. Many already do quietly without scale, protection, or support.
Second attack. “Only 10% supporting 90% is unfair or impossible.”
But that is how every functioning economy works. Not everyone is equally productive at all times. Children, the elderly, the sick, students, and even the temporarily idle depend on the output of a smaller productive core. The problem is not dependency. The problem is how small Ghana’s productive core currently is.
Third attack. “People will evade taxes.”
True, if businesses are treated as enemies. But when businesses are nurtured, protected, formalised gradually, and allowed to grow, compliance improves naturally. You do not milk a cow by starving it.
Fourth attack. “What about corruption and waste?”
Absolutely valid. Waste and corruption weaken every tax effort. But even perfect governance cannot compensate for an economy that produces too little. You cannot share what does not exist.
The real work of economic management is not chasing loans or issuing press statements. It is studying what the country consumes daily, food, clothing, building materials, transport services, energy, simple manufacturing, and deliberately deciding to produce them locally, efficiently, and competitively. Export the surplus. Repeat consistently.
If I were in charge of economic policy, I would spend more time growing businesses than negotiating loans. Businesses would be my most protected asset, like a prized car, a carefully kept garden, or a child whose future secures the whole household. You nurture them, give them space, remove unnecessary obstacles, and let them grow.
Debt is not evil. Borrowing is not failure. But borrowing without a deliberate, aggressive plan to expand production and entrepreneurship is simply postponing hardship.
Ghana does not need magic. It needs more producers, fewer excuses, and a mindset that understands that wealth is created before it is distributed. That, in the end, is not ideology. It is just common sense.