Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, the ranking member of the parliamentary finance committee, has requested that the finance minister immediately cease all preparations for the start of the debt swap programme.
He asserts that the programme is currently seeing opposition as a result of the improper stakeholder engagements before to its announcement.
He claimed that the programmes had been adequately implemented in the nations that had been successful in using them to resolve their debt problems.
“So we can learn from best practices. What surprises me most is that the Jamaican example has been touted as the best because of the engagements it went through before the final decision was made,” he said according to myjoyonline.com reports According to him, if the current resistance to the programme continues, it may not be beneficial to the government in its quest to seek aid from the International Monetary Fund. “Ghana had an option to learn from best practices where proper engagement was done but today in Ghana’s case, we are complaining of lack of engagement. “So I think the time has come for us to call on the Finance Minister to immediately suspend Debt Exchange Programme and engage further. I think Ghana will need a proper stakeholder engagement on this matter,” Ato Forson remarked. Meanwhile, the individual bondholders have petitioned the president to ensure their exclusion from the programme. According to them, no consultation was made with them before the government announced their inclusion in the programme on December 24, 2022.