Domestic debt exchange: Ofori-Atta must listen to the cries of the people
The Domestic Debt Exchange program being undertaken by the Akufo-Addo government is not welcoming to Ghanaians who have bought government bonds.
This is due to how the exercise is being managed by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
The stoic obstinacy with which the whole exercise is being undertaken is not only worrying but also hurting the NPP as a party.
The flip-flops of the Finance Ministry is becoming one too many. Today, ‘individual bond holders are exempted, tomorrow if individuals fail to subscribe to it, they would lose the values of their bonds’ mantra is strange, to say the least.
How can something which is voluntary also bring repercussions for those who may not wish to jump onto the program?
Where is the voluntarism in this arrangement? If people are at liberty to sign onto it or not, then they should not suffer any consequences if they fail to sign onto the program!
What Ghanaians are being told by Ken Ofori-Atta in relation to what is being implemented are not in tandem with each other.
People would not have confidence in the whole program if the Finance Minister keeps on changing his position every week.
In jurisdictions where a DDE was undertaken, it took several months of engagements and deliberations with stakeholders before it was rolled out.
In Ghana, an announcement was made and in less than a month, people were being coerced to subscribe to the program.
Many Ghanaians are still in tue dark as to what this DDE idea is all about. People barely understand the concept and how it’d impact on their lives if they subscribe to it or not.
It all boils down to the way and manner in which the program was rolled out. It is not too late for the Finance Ministry to go back to the drawing board and fine-tune this exercise.
Anything less than that would send Ghanaians onto the streets in protests against the government, something which would affect the fortunes of the party in the 2024 elections.
Source: MyABCLive