Financial expert Patrick Baah Abankwa has stated that Ghana will experience a much worse economic hardship if the government includes treasury bills and individual bondholders in the Debt Exchange Program.
In an interview on SVTV AFRICA with DJ Nyaami, Patrick explained what the Debt Exchange Program is and how it will affect Ghana’s economy. According to the former bank manager, the government officially announced that individual bondholders and treasury bill holders were exempted. However, they consider it soon.
“What that means is if government consider it, they can decide to extend the tenure to 15 years because they can’t pay you now. The moment that happens, trust me, the hardship we are seeing today cannot be compared to what we’ll see. It’s not even about 10% of what will happen when it’s implemented,” he revealed.
Patrick advised the government of Ghana to exclude individual bondholders and T-bills from the program. Otherwise, it will discourage people from investing apart from the economic crisis.
“If people decide not to invest because of this, all institutions in Ghana will collapse. The bank will not have monies to give out as loans, and businesses will not expand. Then, workers will be laid off, and that is where robbery comes in,” he advised.
Moreover, Mr Abankwah spoke on the frequent Cedi depreciation and mentioned that it can only be fixed if the government restricts the importation of certain products, especially rice. According to Patrick, exporting more is the only way the currency can regain its value.
Kindly watch the full interview below;
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