Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has announced that Ghana will launch a Domestic Debt Exchange (DDE) tomorrow, expressing confidence that the move would help restore macroeconomic stability and end the country’s economic crisis.
In a video address on Sunday, Mr Ofori-Atta said the government wanted to minimise the impact of the debt swap on small investors so would not apply the terms to Treasury bills or to holders of individual bonds
“Your T-Bills are safe. Treasury Bills are totally exempted from any debt sustainability programme by the Ghana Government. You will get full at maturity. There will be no haircut on the principal of bonds. Individual holders of bonds will not be affected,” the Finance Minister announced.
He further reiterated that details on the Domestic Debt Exchange (DDE) will be launched tomorrow, December 5, whilst “external debt parameters to be presented in due course”.
Under DDE, he explained that local bonds will be exchanged for new ones maturing in 2027, 2029, 2032 and 2037 and their annual coupon will be set at 0% in 2023, 5% in 2024 and 10% from 2025 until maturity.
“Government’s commitment in line with International Monetary Fund (IMF) negotiations is to restore macroeconomic stability in the shortest possible time and enable investors to realise benefit of the DDE,” he stated.
Government, he revealed, was working hard to minimise the impact of debt exchange of investors holding government bonds, particularly, small investors, individuals and other vulnerable groups.
The Finance Minister said the government would set up a financial stability fund with the support of development partners to help domestic financial institutions, including banks and pension funds, weather the swap.
“I say to you, nothing will be lost, nothing will be missing, and nothing will be broken. We will, together, recover all,” he assured.
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