The Minister of Finance Dr Mohammed Amin Adam has rendered an apology to Ghanaians for the hardships imposed on them by the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
He stated that the programme was carried out as one of the requirements for the programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Karaga lawmaker stated that it was not the intention of the government to visit hardship on the people.
Addressing a town hall meeting in Accra on Tuesday, August 6, he said “We decided to restructure our debts because it was one of the requirements by the IMF. We started with the domestic debt exchange programme, the domestic debt exchange programme was very successful, achieving 95 percent participation. On this note, I would like to appeal to the people of this country to forgive us.
“It is never the intention of any government to impose hardships on its people, more so the NPP government that has demonstrated that we want to reduce the burden of the Ghanaian people. ”
He added “It was a necessary, important decision at the time. If we had avoided it our development or economy would not be what it is today. All the support you gave us during the DDEP has contributed largely to the recovery our economy is seeing today.
“This is why I want to appeal to you to forgive us but also to thank you on behalf of the president for the sacrifices, for the efforts that you all have made to participate in the DDEP.”
The Finance Ministry had stated earlier that the DDEP was done to help protect the economy and enhance our capacity to service our public debts effectively.
The alternative of not executing the DDEP would have brought grave disorder in the servicing of our national debt and exacerbated the current economic crisis, the Ministry said.
The programme initially sought to exchange GH¢137.3 billion worth of Government of Ghana (GoG) bonds for new ones but later revised to GH¢109.84 billion, with the government seeing the voluntary exchange of GH¢87 billion; which was considered successful.
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