An economist, Dr Theo Acheampong has said that there will be losses due the implementation of the debt exchange programme introduced by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.<\/strong><\/p>\nDuring the launch of the programme in Accra on Monday December 6, Mr Ofori-Atta indicated that the government will ensure that people\u2019s investments are safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cTreasury Bills are completely exempted, and all holders will be paid the full value of their investments on maturity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be no haircut on the principal of bonds. Individual holders of bonds will not be affected,\u201d he said in an address on Sunday evening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Speaking during the thought leadership forum organized by Media General on the theme \u201cDebt Restructuring: What it means for your investment,\u201d on Thursday December 8, Dr Theo Acheampong said \u201clet no one say that there won\u2019t be losses, there will be loses. the amount of losses is much more going to be bigger than what is being proposed.\u201d<\/p>\n
He further said in Jamaica where the programme was successful, authorities carried along the affected people right from the the get-go.<\/p>\n
In Ghana, he noted, there has not been enough engagements with the people who are going to be affected by the programme.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta\u00a0while launching the programme on Monday December 6 said Ghana is not the first nation to undertake such Domestic Debt operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo illustrate the point, let me cite the examples of just two countries among many
others in the last 10 years. Jamaica resorted to such operations in the past, notably in 2010 and 2013.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn both cases, it chose to trust the sense of responsibility of the Jamaican people
and proceeded through a voluntary approach. This approach was highly successful, as more than 99% of holders of domestic bonds participated in the exchange.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the contrary, in the case of Greece, the Authorities chose to undertake a coercive approach, whereby a law was passed to force people into participating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added \u201cWe intend to avoid as much as possible the Greek approach, as we strive to reach a consensual solution with our bondholders, which the is Ghanaian way. In any case, the good news is that the Domestic Debt Exchange has yielded positive results both in Greece and Jamaica, and many others, and will certainly put our economy on a much stronger footing. Greece has now recovered full market access. We certainly anticipate a similar success story in Ghana. I want to assure you about the Government\u2019s commitment to do what is necessary to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the programme is facing massive rejection from stakeholders including the\u00a0Ghana Medical Association\u00a0(GMA), The\u00a0Ghana National Association of Teachers\u00a0(GNAT) Trades Union Congress (TUC) and The\u00a0University Teachers Association of Ghana\u00a0(UTAG).<\/p>\n
Speaking during the thought leadership forum organized by Media General on the theme \u201cDebt Restructuring: What it means for your investment,\u201d on Thursday December 8, Dr Acheampong said \u201cThere has not been as much of engagements with the people who will be affected by this domestics exchange programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is worrying that decision are made sometimes in silos\u00a0 without carrying on board the people who these decisions are affected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason why in Jamaica it was successful was that they carried the people who will be affected along from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, Professor Peter Quartey also said earlier that there was the need for a broader consultation on the Debt Exchange programme.<\/p>\n
He said that consensus building was needed because the progamme seeks to touch the funds of the people.<\/p>\n
There needed to be agreement on the terms and conditions for the proposal, he said.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the Ghana Tonight show with Alfred Ocansey on TV3 Monday December 5, he said \u201cI think in all of these there is the need for consultation or consensus building. It is very critical because you are going to touch people\u2019s funds and certainly, they have to agree to the terms or whatever you want to propose.<\/p>\n
\n
READ ALSO:<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0Youth unemployment time bomb waiting to explode \u2013 Haruna Iddrisu<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\u201cI know that there has been some initial consultations but I don\u2019t think that has been wide enough, that has been deepened enough and therefore, going forward, I think government should consult labour, consult pension fund holders, etc so that there is some consensus building in this because we are in this together, without consultations you cannot move forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot also signed onto an IMF programme if we do not agree to a debt restructuring exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta An economist, Dr Theo Acheampong has said that there will be losses due the implementation of the debt exchange programme introduced by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta. During the launch of the programme in Accra on Monday December 6, Mr Ofori-Atta indicated that the government will ensure that people\u2019s investments […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1213838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[2829,1580,1418,1328,20091],"class_list":{"0":"post-1263664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-acheampong","9":"tag-debt","10":"tag-exchange","11":"tag-losses","12":"tag-theo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1263664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1263664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1263664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1263664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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