Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta
Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has been described as the most innovative Finance Minister in Africa.
He was commended by the Economist magazine’s chief Africa correspondent, John McDermott, who was responding to a tweet from a Bloomberg article about Ghana’s plans for a sustainable bond to fund Free SHS policy.
“Ofori-Atta is Africa’s most innovative Finance Minister,” he submitted while replying a tweet.
Author of the oroginal tweet, Jack Rossiter – an analyst with the Center for Global Development – quoted a portion of the article which read: “Ghana is planning to raise as much as $1 billion through a sale of sustainable bonds, including Africa’s first social debt to fund a flagship policy [Free SHS] to broaden access to education.”
McDermott was then asked by another analyst about the implictions of such a bond: “With all due respect to the Minister, isn’t this just one step closer to a debt default? Unless I have missed something, innovative debt is pretty much the same as traditional debt when your debt ratio is up at 80+%?” Prof Nic Cheeseman quizzed.
To that, McDermott simple replied: “Innovative” a double-edged sword…”
The minister has been praised for leadership in rebooting the economy and putting in place measures to restore it back to pre-pandemic levels.
On the subject of the bonds expected to go on sale in July, the proceeds are to help refinance domestic debt used for social, environmental and educational projects.
The sale, likely to be a mix of social and green bonds, comes months after Ghana sold four-year zero-coupon debt to international investors as part of a US$3.025 billion Eurobond deal that also included 20-year, 12-year and seven-year securities.