By Elsie Appiah-Osei
Accra, Nov 2, GNA- Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Minority Leader of Parliament, says the government is likely to undertake some debt restructuring in the next 14 days.
According to him, the move would probably affect the investor community.
“President Nana Addo Dankwa in his attempt to rebut President John Dramani Mahama and our Ranking Member, the Hon. Ato Forson on debt and its management and sustainability dismissed the argument of a haircut. He was categorical that there will be no haircut.
“We are assuring the people of Ghana, we are assuring investors, people with savings, people with investments in instruments that there will be a barber of a sort, probably that barber will be “Sika mp3 dede” barber.
Whether it affects domestic investment or domestic instruments, we are giving you only 14 days from today, you will hear from them publicly, efforts to restructure our unsustainable debt, and those efforts will necessarily include a “Sika mp3 dede” barber for many persons who have investment and savings in some instrument,” he said.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in a televised address on the economy to the nation on Sunday, October 30, promised Ghanaians that no individual or institutional investor, including pension funds, in government treasury bills or instruments would lose their money, as a result of the ongoing International Monetary Fund (IMF) negotiations.
However, reacting to the president’s comments at a press conference in Accra at Parliament House, Mr Iddrisu maintained that debt restructuring was inevitable considering the dire state of Ghana’s economy.
He said: “Contrary to President Akufo-Addo’s claim that there will be ‘No haircuts’, investors in government bonds and other pension funds will be adversely affected by the move.”
Mr Iddrisu also accused the President of failing to take responsibility for the troubles the country was enduring in his address on the economy.
“The President failed to accept the responsibility that he’s responsible for the sorry state of the Ghanaian economy and he’s responsible for the wrenched economy, which has consequences on livelihoods, poverty has exacerbated, cost of living has gone high, the cost of doing business high, many businesses are folding up, some industries are now re-routing their investments into neighbouring Ivory Coast and other countries because Ghana is no longer the investment haven as it should be,” he said.
GNA