Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has been described as Africa’s most innovative finance minister.
He was praised by The Economist magazine’s chief Africa correspondent, John McDermott, who was responding to a tweet from a Bloomberg article on Ghana’s plans for a lasting bond to fund the Free SHS policy.
“Ofori-Atta is Africa’s most innovative finance minister,†he submitted, responding to a tweet.
Author of the original tweet, Jack Rossiter – an analyst with the Center for Global Development – quoted part of the article which read: “Ghana plans to raise up to $ 1 billion through sale of durable bonds, including including Africa’s first social debt finance a flagship policy [Free SHS] to expand access to education.
McDermott was then asked by another analyst about the implications of such an obligation: “With all due respect to the minister, isn’t this one more step towards default? like traditional debt when your debt ratio is up over 80%? â€Professor Nic Cheeseman asked.
To this McDermott simply replied, “Innovative” a double-edged sword … “
The minister was praised for his leadership in restarting the economy and putting in place measures to bring it back to pre-pandemic levels.
As for bonds scheduled to sell in July, the proceeds are to help refinance domestic debt used for social, environmental and educational projects.
The sale, likely to be a mix of social and green bonds, comes months after Ghana sold four-year zero-coupon debt to international investors in a $ 3.025 billion Eurobond deal which also included 20-year, 12-year and seven-year bonds. titles for the year.