By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
Ghana’s Minister of Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, has hinted that the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government will pursue the restructuring of pension funds in the next phase of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
He again mentioned that the government will also exchange debt in the energy sector, including that of independent power producers (IPPs), cocoa bills, local US-dominated bonds, and Bank of Ghana non-tradable debt, as part of efforts to bring the country’s debt to sustainable levels.
The Minister of Finance made this announcement during the mid-year budget review in Parliament on Monday, July 31, 2023.
According to him, the DDEP had provided the government with increased fiscal flexibility and addressed cash and other liquidity constraints.
However, he said that to complete the domestic debt operations, the government intends to further pursue discussions around some other domestic debt instruments which excluded from the DDEP perimeter.
“Mr. Speaker, although pension funds were exempted from the main DDEP, we continue to engage them,” Mr. Ofori-Atta said.
Of the remaining debt instruments, the government launched debt operations for the cocoa bills and local US dollar-denominated bonds on July 14, 2023, with a settlement date of July 31, 2023.
He said the government was also engaging with the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) on debt relief and financing arrangements to achieve both debt sustainability for the country and financial sustainability for the energy sector.
