The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has reassured institutions and individuals of government’s dedication to building local resilience and capacity as a preventive measure against future economic crisis.

Speaking during an interview, the finance minister disclosed that Ghana had been left exposed following the exhaustion of the country’s buffers to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, thus making it vulnerable to the ripple effect of the Russia-Ukraine war.

In his speech, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta communicated that the only solution government can adopt to prevent such crisiis from ever repeating itself, will be heavily investing in agriculture and industry to break the country’s reliance on food imports among others.

“Well, there are consequences to these things. How do you mitigate it? And really what is the alternative? The alternative is a disorderly process which we don’t want. So how do you manage that in a way in which we will know the direction we are going?
“We get the support from the international community, but the same time, we have to build local resilience and capacity. And that’s why the issue of farming, etc, industries are going to be key in this period of time so that we build a country that has more buffers than it has had in the past.”
Ken Ofori-Atta

That notwithstanding, he further divulged that arrangements are ongoing to introduce structural reforms in the country’s economic frame to support the local capacity building project.

“I think the issue of certain structural reforms which we are discussing with a lot of people are really also what is expected of this government and some hard decisions include a debt exchange.
“And we will look at the ministries, what are we going to do about these flagship programmes? All of those are critical components of this journey that we have embarked on. And we will be successful.”
Ken Ofori-Atta

Adding up to that, he beseeched the public to accept the domestic and debt exchange program as that is the only initiative that can suffice the economy now.

According to him, as government works on the needed steps now to build resilience, the only measure that can reduce the excessive burden created by the debt on the economy and to reach debt sustainability target by the IMF is the DDEP. He therefore pleaded with institutions and individuals to support government as he works for the betterment of the country.

Individuals Reject DDEP Despite Finance Minister’s Appeal

Regardless the finance minister’s assurance of government putting in effort to build resilience and plea for citizens to accept DDEP, a survey conducted revealed that over 88% of participants in the poll are not in support of government’s DDEP initiative, especially the inclusion of individual bondholders in the program.

Out of a total number of 11,627 respondents, 10,259 people, representing over 88 per cent of the participants, said that they do not support the inclusion of individual bondholders in the DDEP.

The majority of respondents who opposed the plan claimed that ordinary Ghanaians should not be forced to bear the brunt of the nation’s debt burden because it was the government’s fault.

“The individual bondholders cannot be blamed. Those people who were contracting the loans on behalf of the government should have known in advance the impact the loans will be having on the economy as a whole. The people involved must be made to pay for their mismanagement of the economy.
“This government doesn’t respect Ghanaians. Instead of reducing the number of ministers to twenty and presidential staff to two hundred, they want to keep the over-bloated government and hanging on arrogantly. The worst government ever.”
Participant of the survey

Pensioners who took part in the poll revealed that they had invested all the monies in government bonds and that their inclusion in the DDEP would adversely affect their livelihood.

“As a pensioner, my last born is in Primary School and would reach higher educational ladder soon. I would be so old to do any other work and so I invested in bonds to see her through schooling when the time comes. If Ken Ofori Atta wanted to kill me before my girl child drop out of school, then he should better kill me now not to witness her end of education whilst I would be alive and cannot do anything. We beg him in the name of God not to touch our individual bonds.”
One Retiree

Nevertheless, 8 percent of participants revealed their support for the move to include individual bondholders in the DDEP.

Some of the participants who voted in support of the government’s move mentioned that Ghanaians must sacrifice for the good of the country.

“We should all understand that there’s no financial well anywhere and we shouldn’t be expecting any miracle to turn things around. It takes our collective efforts and sacrificing to build the perfect Ghana we all dream of. Life is causes and effects, simple.”
Participants of the survey

Four thousand and five (405) respondents, representing nearly 4 percent of the participants, said they are indifferent on the move to include individual bondholders in the debt exchange programme.