Franklin Cudjoe
Franklin Cudjoe

The founding President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has described the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme as too ‘chaotic’ and ‘brutal’.

He was of the opinion that if parliament was involved from the beginning, the turn of events would have been much better.

“I will say with our debt exchange, it was a bit too brutal, it was too chaotic and parliament should have been involved in the process. The minister and government for a long time were unable to have meaningful conversations with the bondholders.

“It would have been better for parliament to be carried along. It would have been easier for the Finance Minister if he involved parliament,” he said on Adom FM’s morning show Dwaso Nsem Friday.

Mr Cudjoe said that the Finance Minister’s appearance in Parliament though was useful was just “informational”.

He added, “If parliament was involved, it would have been difficult for the Finance Ministry not to share information. Going to parliament was late in the day, late in the hour and it presupposes that maybe the government or Finance Ministry was possibly confused at a point in time.”

 He contined that, “Parliament could have tested the caliber of people selected for the programme.”

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, was in Parliament on Thursday to present a statement on the country’s  Debt Exchange Programme.

He told the house about 85% of outstanding eligible amounts that had been successfully tendered.

According to him, the target of 80% as expressed in the Memorandum of Exchange had been met.