Long-term bonds was NDC's idea, not Bawumia's – MP

Acquiring long term bonds as a way of mitigating the impact of debt stock is an idea inculcated by the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, former Deputy Finance Minister Kweku Ricketts-Hagan has said.

He was of the view that it was not true that the idea was conceived by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as it was documented before the New Patriotic Party (NPP) took office.

“We used to only do short-term bonds and the government (NDC) decided that [it was] going to change. The document which I read to you from the Bank of Ghana on the issuance calendar indicates that the calendar aims at continuing the objective of lengthening maturity profile by reducing short-term borrowing,” he told Moro Awudu on Class FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Monday April 24.

He insisted that the concept was part of the debt management strategy that the NDC government put together.

The Cape Coast South MP stated that the approach was not new in that “November last year [2016], the Finance Minister came and did a 10-year bond for the first time and the proceeds were supposed to be used for re-profiling”.

Mr Ricketts-Hagan explained that it “was supposed to be used to pay some of the bonds that the NPP had issued”.