No Eurobond to be issued this year – Bawumia

Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has stated that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government will not issue any Eurobond and add unto the country's debt burden.

According to him, the government has resolved not to embark on any such move at least within this year.

Speaking in an interview with the Head of Citi Business News desk on the sidelines of the ongoing spring meeting in Washington DC, Dr. Bawumia stressed that the government is rather committed to reducing the country's debt burden.

“We've made a strategic decision this year not to issue a Eurobond…We do not want to issue a Eurobond we want to bring down the debt and manage them better.”

The Vice President and Head of government's economic management team's comment comes on the back of concerns by some industry watchers that a recent roadshow is an attempt to issue a Eurobond.

But Dr. Bawumia insists the roadshow is to attract investments to Ghana.

“What we want is investments in the Ghanaian economy. The roadshow is to encourage more investments into Ghana,” he stated.

A team of Senior Government officials led by the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo, and Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, have embarked on a Non-Deal Roadshow.

The team visited London, Washington, New York, Boston, among others to interact with Ghana's bond holders, potential investors, US government officials and other key stakeholders.

“We want our investors to know that Ghana is open to business and that we have the policies to make sure that their investments are safe,” Dr. Bawumia added.

Already the 2.25 billion dollars bond recently issued by the government has been met with a lot of criticism especially from the Minority in Parliament.

But the government has mounted a strong defense insisting that the move is to help it re-profile the country's debt which has currently around 74% of GDP.

The past NDC government in September last year issued the fifth Eurobond of 750 million dollars at a yield of 9.25 percent a few points lower than the previous one which was at 10.75 percent.

The bond has a maturity period of 5 years.
At the time some Economists attributed the relatively shorter period of maturity to the low investor confidence in the economy.

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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana