The Member of Parliament for Bolga Central Albert Adongo has attributed the under subscription of the $2.5billion energy bond to vice president Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s lack of understanding of basic economics.
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 7-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.
Proceeds of the bond are to be used to clear debts in the energy sector, which as at December 2016, was $2.5 billion.
Speaking in an interview with Starr News’ Parliamentary Correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan Mr. Adongo said the under subscription of the $2.5billion bond has blemished the economic credentials of vice President Dr. Bawumia.
“This government is so ignorant and arrogant and the level of arrogance is so amazing especially when Dr. Bawumia can speak so eloquently and confuse everybody. But the reality is that he propounds nothing other than empty economic theories,” said the Bolga Central legislator.
He continued: “He is the head of the economic management team. He is the one who was leading this process. In fact, the Ministry of Finance is the biggest economic Ministry under him and at the end, this is where he ended us. All the plenty big talk…the big English of Dr. Bawumia, now the very simple things he cannot do. He is straying into things…those he has learnt for 20 years he can’t do them and those he has never learnt they are the ones he is now doing [the digital addressing system].”
According to him, “…the economy is in serious trouble” and that next week during the presentation of the 2018 budget statement Ghanaians “will see the true picture of all the big English” the vice president had been spewing.
“When we told them that their estimate of 1.6percent growth of GDP in total revenue was unrealistic, they said we were incompetent and that they were going to plug the loopholes…but today when they are talking, they don’t mention them anywhere”.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
