Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has corrected National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentarians who are under the impression that global investment firm Franklin Templeton, is a person.
The correction came on the floor of parliament Wednesday, where he explained the raising of $2.5bn on the international market last April.
The Finance Minister said, contrary to accusations by some NDC MPs that "government is selling all our bonds to one person", Franklin Templeton is one of the world's largest asset management firms with over $850m in assets.
Some NDC MPs led by the Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, claimed Franklin Templeton was a person.
But "for the avoidance of doubt, Franklin Templeton is not a person" the investment banker-turned politician said in parliament. He also explained that the 95% of the bonds bought by Franklin Templeton is not odd as claimed by the Minority.
This is because, in 2016 under the NDC government now a Minority in Parliament, Franklin Templeton bought heavily into Ghana's bonds. The Minority had also claimed there could be conflict of interest in the deal because Templeton Group has a position on the Board of Enterprise Group Limited, a company co-founded by the Finance Minister.
The Finance Minister was at pains to stress, the rules surrounding bond issuance make it highly unlikely for government officials to have any direct relationship with investors.
He said this is because the bonds are bought by individuals only through licensed financial institutions.
Rejecting claims after claims, the Finance minister said there was "no inherent insider dealing" in issuing the bond because it is only through transparency that foreign investors can express interest in the long-term financial instrument.
Ken Ofori-Atta also spent time to eventually dismiss claims raised by the Minority that the bond was denominated in dollars which weakens the cedi. The Minister said, the Minority may have had that impression because "the high participation of foreign investors created false impression that it was a US dollar denominated bond".
He stated "categorically that the bonds were denominated and issued in Ghana cedis...they were not dollar bonds" and expressed delight that using melting dollars to buy cedis will strengthen the local currency.
He explained the bond had low domestic investor participation because historically, they shun long-term investments such as this bond which matures in 15-years.
Ken Ofori-Atta said the world hailed the government for pulling off the "single biggest daily transaction in sub-Saharan Africa". But he came home to find the Minority making "big issues out of a non-issue". He indicated that the query from the Minority is much ado about nothing because, the process used by the previous administration to raise money on the international market is the same process adopted by the new government.
The only difference is that the results are better and investor confidence in Ghana is greater.
He tried to give the NDC MPs the benefit of the doubt saying it could be that their concerns were "genuinely borne out of a lack understanding of the actual process".
Nonetheless this view "may be deemed too charitable because the CVs of some of the persons involved are very, very strong".
Why government raised the bond
Laying down his facts, the Finance Minister said government is saddled with the payment of 10 billion cedis as its annual interest payment on past loans.
Breaking it down, government needs to cough up 1bn cedis on a weekly basis to service domestic debts. This amount is a 100% increase from what used to be the case in 2014. One billion cedis chews off one-third of the monthly tax revenue collected by the Ghana Revenue Authority.
Ghana once with a total debt of 36bn cedis in 2012, had a debt burden of 122bn cedis in 2016.
He said for the past NDC government, the plan to deal with this debt is to "borrow more, tax more" which had " the obvious consequence of worsening the debt burden". The depressing economic situation affected the purchasing power of Ghanaians, triggered job losses in an atmosphere of austerity and weakened the currency, he said.
This burden also leaves government with "very little cash" for essential social services. The new NPP government, he said, "had no choice" but to "think outside the box" by designing a financial instruments which he said, do not raise the debt burden in any way.
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Source: myjoyonline.com
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This is a ***barred word*** narrative to say Franklin Templeton is not human. You are showing your meanness to think that way. If the previous government had dealt with the firm before; how do you think their assumption was that the firm is a human. This shows how insincere you are to throw that to ridicule the opposition to cover up the real issue.
We all know what NDC 'gurus' and clowns do best. STEAL, STEAL and STEAL. Isn't this serious? Any ***barred word*** who reads a little business news knows that Frankin Templeton is a CORPORATION! These NDC gurus never ceases to amaze me, and these are the people handling our future for the last eight years? Wonders shall never end!
Why waste your breath? These ***barred word*** intellectuals will still not appreciate the explanations.
here to read comments heheheheheeeeeee masre saaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
I think I understand the NDC. We are told the NDC worked with Templeton. Was Templeton a friend of the new Finance Minister at that time? Or when did Templeton become a friend of the Finance Minister? Did the NDC know that they were working with someone called Templeton or a company called Templeton? Or Templeton the company metamorphosed into a human being as soon as the NPP took over? Why I understand the agitations of the NDC is that, They might have had some dealings with Templeton some time back. They are , not comfortable that the NPP is also dealing with the same Templeton. They fear their dealings will be exposed in the course of time. Let us wait and see.
hahahahah oh ndc animguase3 akwaaba
Good governance practice on display here.A government that is prepared to give a comprehensive explanation to a nagging issue deserve tons of congratulations.
Riddle riddle who is Franklin Templeton? Yees ndc ans= Ken Ofori Attah's friend Wow! Yeeees NPP = Templeton is not a person but a firm. Excellent. In fact ndcfuo ti awu aaaah so these people were ruling Ghana a country with brilliant and excellent scholars? Whaaaaat? They don't read and if they read they don't understand and if you tell them they send their babies with fork sharp teeth to insult. Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Atiwiifuo akronfuo company.
The NDC MPs in parliament DON'T READ! Yet when you tell them, they get angry. They are worse irritants in opposition that when in government. These guys are fantastically dumb/st00pid!
"Aggya NDC four abon" Never again should NDC be voted into power to rule Ghana. NDC have ***barred word***/milk Ghana dry with their knowledge deficiency. God have mercy. Per Nana Obri Boahen's assession, Ghana has become so cheap that the likes of Akandoh,Ablakwa, mutala Mohamed are MPS.