Ken Ofori-Atta
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has justified the reason for the introduction of a debt exchange programme.
He explained that the debt exchange porgramme that was introduced by the government in the 2023 budget will help in restoring the country’s economy back on track.
He mentioned that debt exchange programme is in the right direction in order to create jobs and protect income of the people,
Launching the porgramme in Accra on Monday December 5, 2022, Mr. Ofori-Atta indicated that the government expects and overwhelming support for the porgramme.
Citing best practices in other countries such as Greece, the Finance Minister said that the debt exchange programme “is an orderly way to put our economy back on track in order to create jobs, protect income and restore hope to the Ghanaian people.”
“The govt expects overwhelming support for this exchange programme,” he stressed.
He further dismissed speculations that there is going to be haircuts following the programme.
“There will be no haircuts,” he said.
He further justified the introduction of the debt exchange programme.
Stating the essence of the programme, he pointed out that it has become necessary because of the enormous challenges with debt servicing since debt servicing is consuming “almost of government’s revenue and also 70 per cent of tax revenue.”
“Which is why we are announcing this to restore our capacity to service debt,” he stressed.
Giving insight of the debt exchange programme, Mr. Ofori-Atta pointed out that ”domestic bond holders will be asked to exchange their instruments for new ones.”
“Existing domestic bonds as of 1st December will be exchanged for a set of four new bonds maturing in 2027, 2029, and 2037.”
By Vincent Kubi