Ken Ofori-Atta
Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has completely rejected reports from a section of the media that the government is planning a second round of Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) with pension funds.
According to the Finance Minister, such reports were false and incorrect.
Speaking to media practitioners at the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC in the United States, Ofori-Atta said, “No, there’s nothing like that.
“I think maybe it was a misunderstanding but if you look at it, in line with the 22 December 2022 memorandum of understanding (MoU) that we signed with Organised Labour, government pension funds were exempted and that has not changed.
“It’s, therefore, not correct to state that we are planning a second round of Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) with pension funds,” he said.
However, the minister said the government is in discussions with Organised Labour on how to maintain the country’s debt sustainability process.
Ofori-Atta said, “What we are doing is working with them on how they can further help the government to reduce the debt servicing and ensure that we maintain in a sort of debt sustainability which was in the MoU.”
“So those discussions are continuing… you know that we still have cocobills to work with, and the domestic dollar bonds that we are still working on but really debunk any sense that there is a second round of Domestic Debt Exchange Programme going to happen,” he added.