Ofori-Atta dismisses claims of second Debt Exchange Programme involving pension funds

Finance Minister of Ghana, Ken Ofori-Atta, has dismissed reports that the government is planning a second round of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) involving pension funds.

Mr Ofori-Atta refuted these claims while speaking to journalists at the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC.

He clarified that the reports were based on a misunderstanding and that government pension funds were exempted from the DDEP in a memorandum of understanding signed with Organised Labour on December 22, 2022.

The minister, however, stated that the government is in talks with Organised Labour to find ways to maintain the country’s debt sustainability.

He reiterated that there is no plan to carry out a second round of DDEP involving pension funds, but discussions are ongoing to reduce debt servicing and ensure debt sustainability in accordance with the MoU.

“No, there’s nothing like that. I think maybe it was a misunderstanding but if you look at it in line with the 22 December 2022 memorandum of understanding (MoU) that we signed with Organised Labour, government pension funds were exempted and that has not changed. It’s, therefore, not correct to state that we are planning a second round of Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) with pension funds,” he said.

“What we are doing is working with them on how they can further help the government to reduce the debt servicing and ensure that we maintain in a sort of debt sustainability which was in the MoU.”

“So those discussions are continuing… you know that we still have cocobills to work with, and the domestic dollar bonds that we are still working on but really debunk any sense that there is a second round of Domestic Debt Exchange Programme going to happen,” he added.