Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has clarified that there will not be any second Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) for Pension Funds as purported.
The Finance Minister made the clarification while addressing some Ghanaian Journalists in Washington DC, United States on Thursday.
He said "Really, no! There is nothing like that. I think maybe, it was a misunderstanding but if you look at it, in line with the 22nd December's MoU, that we signed with Organised Labour Associations, Pension Funds were exempted"
"That has not changed, therefore, it is not correct to say that we are planning a second round of DDEP with Pension Funds"
"What we are doing is, working with them on how they can further help government to reduce the debt service and ensure that we maintain the debt sustainability which was in the MoU Agreement and so those discussions are continuing"
"You know that we still have some bills to work with and the Domestic Dollar Bonds that we are still working on"
External Creditors
Touching on conversations with External Creditors, the Minister said "Our discussions with the fund and development partners have been marked by a clear understanding of the need to restore macroeconomic and financial stability to Ghana and promote our economic recovery as quickly as possible"
"We have highlighted the importance of revenue mobilisation, expenditure control and implementation of decisive reforms to kick start our growth"
"Encouragingly, there is broad alignment of the International community that our policy orientation is not really proactive but also well-anchored"
The Minister noted that the IMF has been convinced to support Ghana's overall ambitions.
"We are advancing our discussions with our International Bondholders and other External Commercial Creditors"
"Our Domestic Debt Holders have made significant sacrifices towards helping to reduce Ghana's debt services and needs and we are encouraging our Commercial and Foreign Holders to also step up and contribute to the effort in the spirit of burden sharing"
Story by: Joshua Kwabena Smith