Debt restructuring: Your recklessness, dishonesty has brought us here – Suhuyini blasts gov’t

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini has lambasted government for refusing to engage the Minority before announcing its Domestic Debt Exchange programme.

Speaking to TV3 on Tuesday, December 6, the MP stressed that the recklessness and dishonesty of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government are what has brought the country to its current economic crisis.

“Their recklessness and their dishonesty have brought us to where we are,” Alhassan Suhuyini argued.

According to the Tamale North MP, it is appalling that in the processes of Ghana’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, government failed to engage the minority and other stakeholders.

In his view, the Minority would have proffered better measures to help deal with the current challenges if it was engaged.

“Never, we were not engaged. you can even hear TUC and others saying they have not been engaged,” Alhassan Suhuyini responded when asked if the Minority was engaged.

The Tamale North MP added, “If they had engaged, there would have been better ways suggested to deal with the challenges.”

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta on Monday, December 5 officially launched Ghana's Domestic Debt Exchange programme at a media briefing in Accra.

He said under the Programme, domestic bondholders will be asked to exchange their instruments for new ones. Existing domestic bonds as of 1st December 2022 will be exchanged for a set of four new bonds maturing in 2027, 2029, 2032 and 2037.

The annual coupon on all of these new bonds will be set at 0% in 2023, 5% in 2024 and 10% from 2025 until maturity whilst coupon payments will be semi-annual.

According to the Finance Minister, the government is keen on restoring macroeconomic stability in the shortest possible time.

“Our commitment to Ghanaians and the investor community, in line with negotiations with the IMF, is to restore macroeconomic stability in the shortest possible time and enable investors to realize the benefits of this Debt Exchange,” Ken Ofori-Atta said.