Ghanaians will suffer for the next thirty to forty years due to the bad policies of the current government that have been introduced by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, a renowned economist, Mr Kwame Pianim has said.
He noted that Ghana is currently in bankruptcy.
Mr Pianim who is also a founding father of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) said these while speaking in an interview with TV3’s Paa Kwasi Asare on Wednesday January 11 regarding the debt exchange programme.
“For this government to allow Ken Ofori-Atta to sit in front of Ghanaians to make this proposal…
“If Ken was genuine, when the Attorney General came with his legal opinion, which in the commonwealth has the force of a high court order, he would have taken this document and gone to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). If indeed, it is the that IMF that told him to do that, I think it is unlawful, it is unconstitutional.”
He added “… Ken Ofori-Atta is saying, let us do this programme but this is badly thought out, not thought through carefully. This exchange programme is like a time bomb that Ken is putting under this economy. For the next 30 to 40 years, we are going to suffer from it. It is a time bomb because he is squeezing billions of Cedis from this economy.
The domestic debt exchange programme was launched on Monday, December 5 as part of austerity measures to save the economy from collapse.
By the Programme, government was going to re-introduce coupons for domestic bonds, whose maturity could go to 2037. The bonds will be exchanged for new ones.
Reports of the inclusion workers’ pensions stirred agitations among workers, who gave government a 7-day ultimatum to exempt their contributions, most of which were lodged in government vaults.
After the ultimatum elapsed, Organised Labour declared intention to proceed on strike from Tuesday, December 27.
“We are asking government to exempt us from the debt exchange programme,” Secretary General of Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) Dr Anthony Yaw Baah told journalists at a press conference in Accra on Monday, December 19.
“We have already told the world that if government doesn’t do that, we will advise ourselves. Today, we are here to announce the advice.
“The advice is very simple. We have all agreed that because the government has refused to grant our request, we have decided firmly that all workers of Ghana are going to strike on December 27, 2022, and we will be on strike until our demands are met.”
But they rescinded the decision after the meeting with the Finance Minister.