Joe Jackson recounts how he predicted Ghana’s debt crisis in 2019

Economist, Joe Jackson has said that he foretold the current public debt crisis Ghana is facing in 2019.

In a tweet shared on Friday, December 9, 2022, Jackson shared a video of him in an interview on the KSM show warning the government of its reckless borrowing.

In the said video which he captioned, “to think that in 2019 I predicted the current debt debacle on KSM's show,” the economist said that future generations of Ghanaians were going to be burdened with the monies the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government was borrowing.

“The young ones will pay… they are borrowing forward. They are borrowing for 30 years; they are borrowing for 20 years.

“So, if you are in your 20s now, you are in your 30s now, in your prime, you will be paying that debt that should worry us.

“That people as old as us are borrowing when they will not have a hand in the repayment and they are not using the money for what they should be using it for. We are a broke country,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has announced a number of measures under the government's Domestic Debt Exchange (DDE) programme.

He stated in a 4-minute address on Sunday, December 4, that the announcement was in line with the government's Debt Sustainability Analysis as contained in the 2023 budget he presented to Parliament on November 24.

The minister laid out, among other things, the exchange of existing domestic bonds with four new ones, as well as their maturity dates and terms of coupon payments.

He also addressed the overarching goal of the government relative to its engagements with the International Monetary Fund as well as measures to minimize the impact of domestic bond exchange on different stakeholders.

"The Government of Ghana has been working hard to minimize the impact of the domestic debt exchange on investors holding government bonds, particularly small investors, individuals, and other vulnerable groups," he said, before outlining three main measures:

• Treasury Bills are completely exempted and all holders will be paid the full value of their investments on maturity.

• There will be NO haircut on the principal of bonds.

• Individual holders of bonds will not be affected.

View the tweet plus the video below:

To think that in 2019 I predicted the current debt debacle on KSM's show.@KSM_Kwaku_Misa @metrotvgh #BrokeGhana #HardDecisions https://t.co/Wazw6e1D2y

— Joe Jackson (@Joe_Jackson_GH) December 9, 2022