The deputy minister for Finance Kwaku Kwarteng has dismissed a suggestion from the International Monetary Fund that the government should have issued a Vanilla bond and not a bond through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).
“In the view of the IMF, the government should have issued a “Vanilla bond” not a bond through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV),” the IMF stated in a document intercepted by Starr News.
The IMF also added that it recognizes the recently issued energy bond as public debt and insists that the government classifies it as such.
But in a response Mr Kwarteng said the IMF are not God, adding that the government must not take on board every suggestion from that organisation.
“The IMF made that suggestion but…the Minority should move from that mentality that the ‘IMF are gods’ and whatever they say we must do,” Kwarteng told host of Morning Starr Francis Abban Thursday.
His comments come after Government failed to meet its target for the first tranche of the bond after a second attempt.
Managers of the Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA) who have been given the mandate by Government to issue the bond, were seeking to raise GHS6billion under the two separate bonds.
But it accrued a total of GHS4.6 billion after it closed the auction last Friday.
The seven-year bond received the targeted GHS2.4 billion while the 10-year bond accrued about GHS2.2 billion, below the target of GHS3.6 billion.
The managers also accepted an interest rate of 19.5% for the 10-year bond.
Mr Kwarteng added that government will engage the investors to understand why the bond was under subscribed.
“We understand there is under subscription. We are not panicking because of that but we’ll still engage the investors.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
