Government will protect depositors in debt exchange programme – NPP

The New Patriotic Party says the Akufo-Addo-led administration will do everything possible to ensure that depositors do not lose their funds as the government embarks on a debt exchange programme.

The party claims its track record of Saving depositors’ funds in the banking sector clean-up should give hope to Ghanaians that investors’ funds will be saved.

The government has been severely criticised for introducing a new arrangement to vary maturity dates and annual interest for domestic debt bondholders.

Several labour unions including the Ghana Medical Association, the University Teachers Association, the Ghana Miners Union and Trades Union Congress have expressed their opposition to the move.

Pressure Group, OccupyGhana, has also stated that the government must be entirely blamed for the current economic mess.

According to the group, the government’s failed, risky economic strategy that relied on heavy borrowing from the international market to fund expenditure, pay the maturing debt, and support the cedi is what has created the economic crisis and not the Russia-Ukraine war.

“Although the government would seek to blame the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war for this disaster, it cannot evade or avoid the fact that our debt was unsustainable even before these external factors kicked in and compounded an already precarious situation”.

But in an interview with Citi News, a deputy General Secretary of the ruling party Haruna Mohammed assured that investors’ funds are in safe hands.

“The government in the run-up to the collapse of many banks in the country, we had to come up with the Financial sector clean up and we had to make sure that over 4 million citizens of Ghana deposits were being saved, this is a government that has done it before.”