'$50bn Centenary Bond Needless; Will Cost NPP Votes In 2020'

There is no need for Ghana to float a $50 billion centenary bond as revealed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Gideon Amissah, a financial analyst and economist, has said.

According to him, if the government goes ahead to float this bond, it will have dire consequences on the future of the country, a situation that can cost the New Patriotic Party (NPP) the next elections.

He explained in an interview with Accra FM Monday, 3 September that this will result in a huge debt that generations unborn will have to come and pay, coupled with the already existing debt portfolio of Ghana.

Speaking to President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China during his state visit, President Nana Akufo-Addo said: “The Ministry of Finance and the economists in Ghana are looking at floating a $50 billion Century Bond”.

“This will provide us with the resources to finance our infrastructural and industrial development. We are hoping that, at some stage, China will interest itself, and take a part of it as China’s contribution to Ghana’s development”, the president said.

According to him, the centenary bond will be one of government’s means of securing long-term financial sources that “will allow us to deal with our infrastructural development, and also realise the vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid.”

But Mr Amissah said: “What at all motivated the president to make this revelation in China? What are the details of the discussion between President Akufo-Addo and the Chinese President that may have resulted in our president to make this comment?

“We don’t have too much information on this and I think Ghanaians must be concerned about it.”

He added: “This bond is not necessary, we don’t need this $50 billion that we will be paying in the next 100 years. Let us hasten slowly, I think we are rushing, it is not necessary, we don’t have to push ourselves too much. If the government goes ahead with it, it will cost them in the elections”.