Ofori-Atta needs to explain the “Gold for Oil” arrangement and bondholders’ concerns – Joe Jackson

Chief Operating Officer for Dalex Finance, Joe Jackson has called on the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to address the information gap on the issues of; foreign bond holders, local dollar bondholders, individual bondholders, and the complicated ‘Gold for Oil’ deal in order to update the public on the state of Ghana’s IMF program and growth agenda.

Mr. Jackson noted that, in a lot of ways, the IMF deal was signed when there were still a lot of I’s to be dotted and T’s to be crossed. There are a number of issues that were not really dealt with and there were commitments that haven’t been signed off such as the negotiation with the; foreign bond holders; dollar denominated local bond holders and the pension funds that were still outstanding.

He told Johnnie Hughes on 3FM Sunrise Morning Show that Ghanaians will love to have an update and a clear understanding on all the aforementioned issues so as to know whether the negotiations have been successfully concluded or not.

The global financial economist pointed out that “unfortunately because we don’t know about what has happened, the markets are not reaping the benefits of the IMF deal as much as they should.

“Rates are still very high but the dollar rate should have come down further if people knew where we stand and what to expect” he mentioned.

He admitted that the markets have calmed down and are more stable than they used to be prior to the IMF deal was landed but there are still issues outstanding.

“The major issue is what are we doing with the individual bond holders who did not sign up to the program who have had outstanding bills, where are the negotiations? At what point are we ending it and what point are we paying them off? So these are some of the issues that we would love to have answers to” Joe Jackson pointed out.

He also stated that though he is not a believer in the ‘Gold for Oil’ deal, the finance minister in his press briefing should open up about the ‘Gold for Oil’ deal which is too difficult for many Ghanaians to comprehend.