Economic Advisor to the Vice President, Dr. Gideon Boako, has said the NDC minority needs to strengthen their arithmetic knowledge to be able to make good contributions to financial matters of the economy.
Dr. Boako questioned the figures churned out by the Minority in Parliament in their claims that the Finance Minister, caused financial loss to the state in the recent Energy Bond issuance.
“Total bids submitted by investors for both auctions amounted to GH¢5.32 billion, which is 89% of the targeted amount, and GH¢4.70 billion, representing 78% of the targeted amount was accepted in the first phase of the planned GH¢10 billion ESLA Bond programme. If you follow the Bond market in sub-saharan Africa, you’ll realise that this is the first time, a Corporate or Private entity has raised such an amount. It has never happened. Their take on matters tells me clearly they didn’t read well enough. They wouldn’t put out this factual inaccuracies, if they had researched very well on the Bond issued,” he told Kasapa 102.5 FM Thursday.
The Minority caucus in parliament has indicated it will soon table a motion for the Finance Minister to be summoned before the House over the infamous case of under-subscription of government’s Energy Bond.
At a press conference on Wednesday, the Minority, led by former Deputy Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson, said the development is an indictment on the Vice President, Dr. Bawumia who heads government’s economic management team, adding Ghana has now become a laughing stock in the international arena following the poor outcome of the Bond.
According to Mr. Ato Forson, the Finance Minister has caused financial loss to the state to the tune of 1.2bn cedis as a result of the under-subscription.
But Dr. Boako reacting to the Minority’s Press Conference said the facts don’t support the narratives which the Minority] put out.
According to him, “the arguments by the minority is just a sheer desire to make noise, disturb the atmosphere and the airwaves.”
“We can’t have a minority of this stature, trying to insult everybody, because they don’t understand things and getting their own calculations wrong. It’s highly unacceptable.
“In the first place I’m sure that the bond we issued they have not even sighted the prospectus and even read it. If they have, they won’t be making such pedestrian arguments. So clearly what they put out gives credence to the fact that they don’t understand it all. The Bond that E.S.L.A Plc issued they didn’t indicate anywhere that it’s a one off bullet Bond. Infact if you read page 33 of the Prospectus, under the Heading – Programme Expiry, It said; The Energy Bond programme will expire 5 years from the date of the Prospectus. As a result of this, the Bond being issued by ELSA Plc was for a period of 5 years and as a mater of fact they were not seeking to raise the whole H¢6 billion cedi-denominated energy sector bond on the market in the first week; its just for a period of five years. They could only assess the Bond as a failure, if at the end of the 5 year period, the target was still missed. What they are doing is targeted at the Vice President; they want to run him down.”
The energy bond was issued to offset the legacy debts of the energy sector estimated at GHc 10 billion.
Government sold the bonds after vowing to boost banks’ ability to lend and restructure the debt-laden energy sector.
Future issuance will continue until all the sector’s legacy debts have been settled, E.S.L.A. Plc, as the special-purpose vehicle is known, said.
