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'DDEP didn't save us $12bn, government took $12bn from its citizens by force' - Joe Jackson

Chief Executive Officer of Dalex Finance, Joe Jackson

Fri, 25 Oct 2024 Source: www.ghanaweb.com

The Chief Executive Officer of Dalex Finance, Joe Jackson, has challenged Finance minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam over his claim that the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) saved Ghana a staggering $12 billion.

In a social media post countering the Finance minister, Joe Jackson responded to the news, asserting, "DDEP did not save us $12bn. The govt took $12bn from its citizens by force! Set the record straight."

Speaking on a panel discussion held as part of the 2024 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group on Wednesday, October 23, the Minister emphasised that the DDEP had been an instrumental policy measure in addressing Ghana’s financial difficulties and alleviating its debt load, creating a more sustainable fiscal environment.

According to Dr. Amin Adam, the DDEP, launched in December 2022, was a monumental success that laid the groundwork for broader debt restructuring efforts.

“The DDEP was a great success, and we followed that with the restructuring of our bilateral debt, which was also very successful. This led to significant savings of about $2.8 billion. Following this, the restructuring of our Eurobonds, which is about $13 billion, was concluded in the first week of this month, marking another great success.

“The benefits we have derived from this so far include an outright debt cancellation of about $5 billion and another debt service relief of about $4.3 billion. So, between the bilateral creditors and the Eurobonds, we are talking about savings of about $12 billion. We think this is a great success, and we are still working on restructuring our commercial creditors involving about $2.7 billion, which we are working very hard to conclude,” he said.

DDEP did not save us $12bn

The govt took $12bn from its citizens by force!

Set the record straight. https://t.co/EUxudnCtY2 pic.twitter.com/oRlrXMWlnA
— Joe Jackson (@Joe_Jackson_GH) October 24, 2024