Suspend Debt exchange program & consult -Minority 

The Minority in Parliament has called on the government to suspend the Debt Exchange Program (DEP) and engage affected persons and stakeholders first.

“…We in the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the Minority group, call on the President, Nana Addo Dankwa, to immediately suspend the ongoing Debt Exchange Program …He should suspend the initiative and engage in deeper consultation and allow for greater transparency…,” Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu said at a press conference in Parliament yesterday.

The Minority Leader, in the company of the Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Mr Cassiel Ato Forson, Communications Officer of NDC, Mr Sammy Gyamfi and Minority’s Spokesperson on Roads, Mr Kwame Agbodza, Mr James Klutse Avedzi, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and other Minority MPs, said the government stands to lose if it continues with the program in its current form.

He argued that continuing the program in its current form will create extreme hardship for millions of Ghanaians and existing financial institutions and insurance companies will also be worse of and may collapse.

The Tamale South legislator also indicated that should bondholders also refuse to sign on to the program, government will keep extending the deadline and that would affect the IMF program, which seems to be the last bet for the Akufo-Addo administration.

He said this is likely to happen because bondholders, financial institutions and insurance companies are aware of the amount of monies they will lose, and hence will refuse to participate in the program and that will cause the government to keep postponing.

He, therefore, pointed out that looking at the dire consequences of the program on both the citizens and the government, the best thing would be to suspend it and engage in consultation.

Aside the consultation, the Minority also advised the Akufo-Addo administration to consider holding a national economic dialogue on the state of the economy and how the DEP can be implemented.

Mr Iddrisu believed that recommendations from this national dialogue will guide the government in the implementation of the initiative since people with much knowledge will share their views on it.

The Minority indicated yesterday that before the government will engage in this dialogue, it should first take immediate steps to embark on major expenditure cuts since they are the ones who plunged the country into the economic crisis due to their excess borrowing.

He said cutting down government expenditure will be a manifestation of fiscal prudence, which will help achieve fiscal consolidation.

“We in the Minority we are demanding major expenditure cut as a manifestation of fiscal prudence for purpose of achieving fiscal consolidation,” Mr Iddrisu said.

The leader advised the Akufo-Addo administration to heed these recommendations and implement them since their refusal to heed advise some months ago is why the country is in the mess it is in now.

Meanwhile, the Minority Leader says the National Democratic Congress will deploy its men and women into various parts of the country to educate Ghanaians to appreciate the level of economic crisis that the country has been plunged into and how they can brace themselves for the hardships ahead.

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