23-11-2014 PRESS RELEASE “WHERE’S THE $1BN SOVEREIGN BOND?” BAWUMIA ASKS GOVT Last September, Ghana sold a US$1 billion Eurobond, five days before talks began with the International Monetary Fund for a possible financial bailout. The Finance Minister said at the time that a bigger chunk of the cash raised was to develop the country’s infrastructure. But, Mahamudu Bawumia, the 2016 Vice Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, is asking Government to list the projects for all to see, since they appeared missing in the 2015 Budget, read last week. Dr Bawumia believes the $1 billion raised on the money market has been used to do nothing more than to artificially shore up the cedi from depreciating against major currencies. He further disclosed how the government of the National Democratic Congress has used Ghana’s limited foreign exchange not to invest in productive projects but to merely stop the local currency from sliding. According to the respected economist and running mate to Nana Akufo-Addo, the NDC has spent over $5 billion more in six years to sustain the cedi than the NPP did in eight years and yet the NPP did a far better job than the current government to stabilize the cedi. Addressing a group of UK-based Ghanaian professionals at a breakfast meeting in London Saturday, the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana disclosed, “We are reliably informed that the $1 billion raised from the sovereign bond has been used to reduce government’s indebtedness at the Central Bank and that the funds are not available anymore for the purpose for which it was raised.” Dr Bawumia stressed, “This is sad and raises a whole lot of credibility issues. How can we borrow such a huge amount to fill a gap at the Bank of Ghana, the central bank? Is this the use to which non-concessional borrowing should be put? This is a very serious development and the Government and Bank of Ghana should urgently comment on this.”
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 23:29:01 +0000