Founding President & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at IMANI and African Liberty.org, Franklin Cudjoe has revealed that he has been given a ‘haircut’ as a result of the government’s Debt Exchange Programme.
In financial markets, a haircut refers to a reduction applied to the value of an asset.
This domestic debt exchange is part of a more comprehensive agenda to restore debt and fiscal sustainability.
It involves an exchange for new Government of Ghana bonds with a coupon that steps up to 10% as soon as 2025 and longer average maturity.
Revealing the plight of his investment on facebook, he wrote, “I have been given a haircut of a little over GH₵100,000 cedis in my EDC investment made over the years based on Marked to Market value.
According to Mr.Cudjoe “My Fund Manager adds a note rather painfully, that Investors that choose to remain in the fund until Ghana’s macroeconomic health and bond prices improve are not likely to realize these losses.”
“Folks, based on IMANI’s analysis of government handling of finances from 2010 to 2022, leading to the publication of IMANI’s Fiscal Recklessness Index, this means waiting for at least 8 years for governments not to be so reckless in pretending to manage the economy. And this will be hoping against hope,” he stated.
Mr.Cudjoe cautioned that “until we fix our broken political system that rewards cheap sloganeering with limitless tax and borrowed funds to be splurged at will, we are going nowhere.”
Ghana is facing a very challenging economic situation amid an increasingly difficult global economic environment.
The latest debt sustainability analysis has demonstrated unequivocally that Ghana is faced with a significant financing gap over the coming years and that our public debt is unsustainable.
The Government is currently discussing the contours of a comprehensive international financial assistance package and a debt re-arrangement covering our domestic and external creditors.
The objective is to reduce the excessive burden created by the country’s debt on the economy and reach the debt sustainability targets defined by the IMF staff for the period through 2028 and beyond. In particular, to restore debt sustainability, the government plans to reduce Ghana’s total public debt-to-GDP ratio to 55% in present value terms.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme