Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo has justified government’s issue of bonds to restructure the country’s debts.
The NPP government’s bonds issue have been viewed by some as repeating the very concerns the party raised during the campaign season in 2016.
The running mate at the time, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia criticized the NDC for increasing the debt burden of Ghanaians.
But speaking to Citi Business News on the issue, Mr. Yaw Osafo Maafo stressed that the move will afford government an opportunity to create the fiscal space for development.
According to him, the length of time secured for borrowing, rather extends the maturity periods for the country’s debt.
“So far, this government has not been involved in borrowing; rather what it has been involved heavily in is debt re-profiling meaning that you are looking at your repayment period and you are asking other people to take some part of the debt and give you a longer repayment terms,” he stated.
“Instead of paying something in one year, you get the option to pay within ten years. This helps to get a moratorium to reduce the debt service which is a major toll on the country’s resources and fiscal appearance.” The Senior Minister added.
Ghana’s debt stock as at May 2017 stood at 137.2 billion cedis, according to latest figures from the Bank of Ghana.
This also represents 67.5% of Ghana’s debt to GDP ratio.
Already, the government has announced plans to raise some 17.4 billion cedis in bonds for the third quarter of this year.
Of this, the government on Friday (July 28, 2017) raised 1.49 billion cedis from a 5 year bond it issued.
During the three month period, July to September, a 2.6 billion cedi fifteen year bond will be issued in August and two five year bonds, one to be issued in July and the other in August.
Two 3 year bonds, three 1 year and two 2 year bonds will also be issued.
The rest will be 91 and 182 day bills which will culminate into about 11 billion cedis.
Source: citifmonline.com
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Masa ; Osafo Marfo STOP your propagada and lying to the people of Ghana who told you have not increased the debt of Ghanaians; if you have not increased the debt why did you have to profile the debts and extend the debt repayment because to extend the repayment means a cost to Ghana besides in order to meet the short-term debts all Ken Ofori Atta did was to borrow again at 19% to clear the impending debts with extra as working capital to meet your party's project objectives ; the truth is that the NDC party have not got the skilled people to understand your mirage economics to expose your TRICKS !!!!!!!; Ken Ofori Atta have not done anything from what the NDC were doing ; the only difference is that the NPP borrowed locally whilst the NDC were using the external bond market to borrow to manage our debt besides the NPP has managed to control the leakages through controlling over expenditure but have failed to raise the revenue required to balance the budget; the truth is that you issued bonds to the tune of 2.5 billion but all the bonds were not taken up by the runners -SGS ; Barclays ; Tranklin Temple decided to take about $1 billion of the bonds and at a very high price because today the market bond rate is about 7-11% but the rate given to FT was 19.00% because nobody wanted to take the bonds ; by this deal it has added to the debt of Ghana extened to 15 years and unless the rate of inflation and interest and growth increases this borrowing will add more to our debt ; MR Osafo Marfo STOP being economical with the TRUTH because you are lying to Ghanaians ; THE TRUTH IS THAT IF YOU EXTEND YOUR REPAYMENT SCHEDULE THERE IS ALWAYS A COST AND YOU THERE FORE ADD TO YOUR DEBT !!!!!!IT IS NOT FREE BECAUSE IT GIVES YOU IS BREATHING SPACE !!!!!!-LIAR OSAFO MARFO !!!!