Speaking at a press conference organised by the Minority in Parliament today [Wednesday], Isaac Adongo accused the Vice President of consistently peddling falsehood, but the confident way in which he speaks had convinced Ghanaians to accept his “lies” about the state of the economy.

[contextly_sidebar id=”C7U6vY0kzAVTvfML4OXYiSlrtrgs4ga9″]”Bawumia has never understood the economy of Ghana. He has always lied about the economy of Ghana. He said that our debt was about 36 billion and would end at 40 billion dollars. When he came with his budget, he said it was around 26 billion. How did John Mahama miraculously find 14 billion dollars to pay down the debt in three months before we left office? He took the people of Ghana for a ride,” he said.

“The reality is that, he knows nothing but he’s so confident and eloquent that he can confuse all of you. The reality is that he’s now managing the economy and must walk the talk. But with this bond, I doubt they will attempt the four billion again because they will not get a third rematch because the investors are already away from it.”

His comments come on the back of recent failed attempts by the government to meet its target for the first tranche of the energy bond.

The managers of the bond sought to raise 6 billion cedis under two separate bonds, but accrued a total of 4.6 billion cedis after it closed the auction.

The 7-year bond received the targeted 2.4 billion cedis, whilst the 10-year bond accrued about 2.2 billion cedis, below the target of 3.6 billion cedis.

Several critics have described this development as a failure by the government, and a sign of the declining confidence of investors, whilst the government hailed the bond as relatively successful.

According to Adongo, the recent failed attempts by the government to meet its target for the first tranche of the energy bond, was an indication of the inability of the Economic management team, led by the Vice President, to manage the economy adequately.

Isaac Adongo described the team as “over-hyped” and stated that Dr. Bawumia’s “eloquence” had convinced Ghanaians to accept his “lies” about the state of the economy.

“They rode on the back of the confidence of the economy that the NDC left, to raise a bond of $2.25 billion in four hours. What has now happened that in one month, they still can’t raise it? They are destroying the fundamentals that we developed for them. When they were in their honeymoon period and were taking credit we told them to wait and that their time would come. Their time has come and we have been embarrassed,” he said.

He claimed that the balance sheet of ESLA PLC after raising the bond was -$3.6 billion, and that no investor would put their money in such a company.

“It’s only under the best economist that the world has ever produced, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia,” Isaac Adongo added sarcastically.

Listen to the full address by Isaac Adongo below

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to him, the recent failed attempts by the government to meet its target for the first tranche of the energy bond was an indication of the inability of the Economic management team, led by the Vice President, to manage the economy adequately.

[contextly_sidebar id=”u5hOEuV08ZHHAlRrD63ZpHMT9W9Phdes”]Speaking at a press conference organised by the Minority in Parliament today [Wednesday], Isaac Adongo described the team as “over-hyped” and stated that Dr. Bawumia’s “eloquence” had convinced Ghanaians to accept his “lies” about the state of the economy.

“Bawumia has never understood the economy of Ghana. He has always lied about the economy of Ghana. He said that our debt was about 36 billion and would end at 40 billion dollars. When he came with his budget, he said it was around 26 billion. How did John Mahama miraculously find 14 billion dollars to pay down the debt in three months before we left office? He took the people of Ghana for a ride,” he said.

“The reality is that, he knows nothing but he’s so confident and eloquent that he can confuse all of you. The reality is that he’s now managing the economy and must walk the talk. But with this bond, I doubt they will attempt the four billion again because they will not get a third rematch because the investors are already away from it.”

The managers of the bond sought to raise 6 billion cedis under two separate bonds, but accrued a total of 4.6 billion cedis after it closed the auction.

The 7-year bond received the targeted 2.4 billion cedis, whilst the 10-year bond accrued about 2.2 billion cedis, below the target of 3.6 billion cedis.

Several critics have described this development as a failure by the government and a sign of the declining confidence of investors, whilst the government hailed the bond as relatively successful.

According to Isaac Adongo, despite being able to raise a $2.25 billion bond in hours in April on the back of the goodwill built up by the NDC, the subsequent attempts have failed because of waning investor confidence.

“They rode on the back of the confidence of the economy that the NDC left, to raise a bond of $2.25 billion in four hours. What has now happened that in one month, they still can’t raise it? They are destroying the fundamentals that we developed for them. When they were in their honeymoon period and were taking credit we told them to wait and that their time would come. Their time has come and we have been embarrassed,” he said.

He claimed that the balance sheet of ESLA PLC after raising the bond was -$3.6 billion, and that no investor would put their money in such a company.

“It’s only under the best economist that the world has ever produced, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia,” Isaac Adongo added, tongue-in-cheek.

Listen to the full address by Isaac Adongo below

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post ‘Bawumia always lies about Ghana’s economy’ – Adongo [Audio] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to him, claims by the government that the bond was needed to service the non-performing loans of banks were untenable, as the previous administration had ensured that the debts were being serviced.

[contextly_sidebar id=”8lbfOMUascCJdmP0W0pK4iNrGUPnACA1″]Speaking on the Point Blank segment of Eyewitness News, Isaac Adongo explained that, the Mahama administration had negotiated with the banks to restructure the energy sector debts, and a decision had been taken to end the long-standing subsidies that had been provided to the energy sector companies like the Electricity Company of Ghana and the Volta River Authority.

“All the way back in 2015, a process was started to restructure these debts. We are all aware that as a result of a series of subsidies right from the time of Jerry John Rawlings, through the tenures of Kufuor and Professor Mills. At some point, it was costing us about two billion a year just on subsidies, and we needed to cut it at some point. John Mahama took a bold decision to stop the subsidies, and take stock of where we were in terms of our inability to fund the subsidies to the energy sector companies such as ECG and VRA. That process led to us engaging the banks to renegotiate and restructure those debts so that government will take a decisive step to ensure the debts were serviced,” he said.

“As a result of the process, the interest rate on the dollar component of the loans came down from 12% to 5%, and the interest rate of the cedi component came down from 38% to 22%. We agreed the establishment of an Escrow account managed by the participating banks, the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance into which the receivables from these companies would go into as a first priority. The second was to get Parliament to pass the Energy Sector Levy Act, that was described in various terms as a nuisance tax and that the President referred to as the reason why electricity tariffs were higher than rent. We ensured that from the proceeds from the loans were now being serviced as restructured.”

Isaac Adongo insisted that, the then government’s efforts had resulted in a turnaround in the rate of the non-performing loans, with banks recording a drop of 2% in the last three months of 2016.

This he said negated the government’s arguments, as the fact that the debts were being “consistently serviced” meant that the loans were no longer non-performing.

“The [NPP] government is quite desperate and the desperation is informed by what they term as the urgency to deal with the Energy sector debt in the banks to the extent that they feel that is creating a problem for non-performing loans and a challenge for the banks. I think that they are trying to create an excuse that only exists in their minds.”

“The Monetary Policy Committee’s own report at the end of January 2017 for the year ending 2016, made it quite clear that the non-performing loan portfolios of our banks began to decline from 19% in October to 18% in November, and to 17% in December. This excluded an amount of $165 million that was disbursed in December from the ESLA. As a result, you cannot describe a loan that has been serviced to date as non-performing. How else does a loan perform?” he queried.

Government is reportedly targeting at least 19 percent interest rate on the energy bond to be issued to clear the debts in the energy sector.

This is relatively higher compared to the estimated 18 percent rate on the ten-year domestic bond.

Sources close to the bond issue also indicate that, the corporate nature of the energy bond has influenced the decision to peg anticipated interest rate above that of the current ten-year domestic bond issued by the government of Ghana, which is estimated at 18 percent.

The IMF and government are expected to reach an agreement on the mode of issuing the bond this week, which should also clear the way for the issuance of the energy bond by close of this week.

An earlier statement on the bond indicated that, the first tranche is expected to raise 6 billion cedis; the equivalent of 1.3 billion dollars.

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Speaking to Citi News, Isaac Adongo, who is also the NDC MP for Bolgatanga Central, noted that, the delay was a calculated attempt by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to deny Ghanaians the passage of the Bill and its subsequent implementation.

[contextly_sidebar id=”xxEQ15uxOxAbSzU6cTXRJyVuhaQAW7Gh”]“They simply can’t put together a single bill… Why are they not bringing it back under a certificate of urgency? If the Zongo Development Fund Bill is as important as all the other bills that they have brought under the certificate of urgency, why are they going to gazette it again for another 14 days?”

“It should have come under a certificate of urgency immediately after the bill has been redone, to show that they are really serious and committed to seeing to the implementation of that,” he added.

The Zongo Development Fund bill seeks to establish the legal framework for the implementation of the Zongo Development Fund.

This is the second time government has withdrawn the Zongo Development Fund Bill from Parliament. In August, the initial bill laid in the house was withdrawn and later re-laid.

According to Mr. Adongo, efforts by the government to spend within the annual budget has seen the slashing of funds meant for several developmental programs.

“Technically, they want to cut off GHc 200 million from the expenditure for this year because they just don’t have money to implement those programs. The other development authorities are going through similar challenges, all to ensure that at the end, a total of 1.38 billion Ghana cedis will not be spent in 2017; thereby denying the people of Ghana the opportunity to benefit from these programs.”

He added that “…they are not serious, they are deceiving the people of Ghana and they really didn’t intend to implement any of those programs this year. There is nothing to show for 2017 except the launching of mediocre projects.”

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By: Marie-Franz Fordjoe/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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He explained on Eyewitness News that the current government now views the IMF programme as giving it more credibility for investors.

[contextly_sidebar id=”X1VAkoxBVsqEGVl48GFlrNlz95rPUsOl”]President Nana Akufo-Addo, as recently as July 2017, stated that his government would not extend the programme after it ended on December 2018.

But the IMF, upon concluding its fourth review of Ghana’s programme on Wednesday, August 30, 2017, extended the programme by one year and approved a $94.2 million disbursement.

Mr. Adongo was keen to note that this development was at odds with earlier indications from the President and Minister of Finance, who were “very emphatic” that Ghana would be weaning itself beyond 2018.

Per the IMF’s assessment, Ghana showcased a mixed macroeconomic performance, with significant shocks being amplified by policy slippages and resulting external and domestic imbalances.

Growth in 2016 was at low of 3.5 percent, though the IMF said some recovery of growth is expected in 2017-18, owing to an increase in oil production, declining inflation, and lower imbalances with the right policy implementation.

Going on this assessment, Mr. Adongo said, “at the end of the day, we are being confronted with an economic growth module that is reliant on oil growth.”

Investor confidence low

He said the government was only continuing along with the IMF “because they feel that the IMF gives them a better credibility to give confidence to the investors than their own economic management module.”

“So are we now saying that the IMF is the one that we are looking to for policy credibility in order to improve investor confidence in Ghana?”

The MP noted further that, government raised GHc 12 billion in March, but subsequently, the highest they have been able to raise is about GHc 1.5 billion.

“…It tells you that investor confidence is waning and they themselves don’t have a solution that will appeal to the investors and they need a hand holding and the comfort that the IMF gives – the very comfort that was sought by President John Mahama.”

“With all the theories of Dr. Bawumia… they still have to go back and resort to a very poor economic management module of the IMF, which is now the solution of a government that is supposed to be far better than us,” Mr. Adongo said.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Such assertions, the MP argued on Eyewitness News, were indicative of a lack of understanding of public finance.

[contextly_sidebar id=”58umpGyiLcgFRECrQYj3sMMISkJlPDEq”]His comments on the matter followed President Nana Akufo-Addo recent lamentation over the “huge debts” and “empty coffers” his government came to meet.

President Akufo-Addo, as far back as his first State of the Nation address, has stressed that his administration did not inherit a stable economy from the erstwhile Mahama-led government, which missed all the targets set for the country under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme due to fiscal indiscipline in the management of public funds.

Mr. Adongo, in response to the President’s comments, said the Akufo-Addo administration should be looking for innovative ways to generate the revenue instead of complaining.

“If it was that when you inherit a government, then you are coming to meet a pile of money, then there is no business being in government because you simply are coming to do nothing. No government comes to inherit the coffers with money. Even in the United States of America, you come to meet deficits that are being run by the government.”

“For a President to say he met an empty coffer; since when did a President ever come to meet money and spend that money in the development of a country.”

We’ve spent more than we generate

The MP argued further that because of the challenges of the third world country like Ghana, there is always a dichotomy between the resources the country has and the enormous challenges of nation building that require “you will have to spend more than you generate.”

“What the President is asking for is that he should have come to meet a government that is running a surplus budget and building buffers of money for him to then use and spend and I am saying that would be almost irrational to consider a country such as Ghana… to have surplus money sitting there for Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo to now come and be sleeping at the Flagstaff House and be spending money because the money is available.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According Adongo, a Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, the governing party has increased the country’s debt stock by GHc15 billion within a period of five months.

“We are told that we are re-profiling out debt and our debt will not go up. The reality is that only in the first quarter of the year, we added 5 billion to our public debt. By May in five months we increased it to 15billion. That means in April we increased it by 5 billion and in May we increased it by another 5 billion. That tells you that we are growing our public debt by an average of 3 billion a month over five months,” he added.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Czwp7AdpKkIHe2yLe9aEZ2ljC5uDRfki”]The MP made the statement on the Floor of Parliament after the Minister of Finance; Ken Ofori-Atta presented the mid-year budget review in Parliament on Monday.

Economy is on life support

Mr. Adongo further chastised the NPP for taking credit for some gains made in Ghana’s economy saying the NDC administration must be commended for laying the foundation.

“It is only under this government that you bring a budget that is approved on 31^st of March and by 1^st of April you take credit for January, February and March. But what is the reality? The reality is very simple. Figures released by the Ghana Statistical service indicate that as at June, Ghana’s economy minus oil and gas grew by 3.9%. in the same period last year without oil, John Dramani Mahama’s government was 6.3%. Now we are being told that when you move 6.3% to 3.9% that is a growth of the economy.”

“Gross international reserves means nothing if you don’t compare the depreciation of the cedi, in the same period last year our cedi depreciated by 0.04% now it did 2.5%. So when you depreciate your cedi by 2.5% it is better than 0.04% where did you get that analysis from? At the end of the day you are taking credit when you are yet to be on the feet. Mr. Speaker this economy is under life support and any attempt to do propaganda with the economy will expose us,” he argued.

Debt stock hits GHc137 billion

New figures from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) show that the country’s total public debt hit GHS137.2 billion as at May 2017.

This was contained in the economic and financial data released by the central bank at the end of its Monetary Policy Committee meeting.

According to the report, the debt stock increased by GHc9.4 billion in three months from GHc127.8 billion to GHc137.2 billion.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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According to him, the government demonstrated that it did not have a full grasp of the challenges facing the economy.

[contextly_sidebar id=”PXhr2sN8HED3XdeTqu47XhbBhi5YLLpv”]Speaking to Eyewitness News, Mr. Adongo said the government based some its comments and assessment of the economy on inaccurate figures.

“If you listened to the President carefully and particularly Bawumia, you can see a government that is gasping for breath, this is a government that has basically lost steam, a government that has lost focus…and you can see the litany of inaccurate figures with some of them based on complete lies,” he said.

He said the government cannot claim to have improved the economy of the country within its 6 months in office because most of its policy interventions aimed at addressing the economic challenges are yet to be implemented.

Mr. Adongo noted that any improvement in the economy could only be attributed to the investments of the erstwhile John Mahama administration.

“This is a government whose budget program was approved on the 31^st of March and as at the 1^st of June most of the policy interventions including the tax cuts have not been implemented. They should mention one specific policy intervention that would have brought about an improvement in the economy other than John Mahama’s investment in the oil sector and improvement in the prices of gold on the international market,” he said.

Commenting on the response the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia gave to a question asked by Citi Breakfast Show host, Bernard Avle about the country’s increasing debt, Mr. Adongo accused the Vice President of churning out wrong figures to deceive Ghanaians.

The Bolgatanga legislator added that the government was worsening the country’s debt profile but giving false assurances its recent borrowing would rather the country reduce its debt stock.

“… On the debt profile, You add $44 billion to the debt profile, and you say that at the end of the year, your debt profile will come down. How is that possible? Bawumia says the deficit figures was 9.4%… The budget that was presented by his own Ministry of Finance and it tells you Ghana’s deficit was 8.6% so where is he getting the 9.4% from? You hear Bawumia consistently basically lie about statistics and we allow this to go for free and this cannot continue because he is now the Vice President he shouldn’t be churning out lies to convince the people,” Mr. Adongo said.

Meanwhile, a deputy Minister for Information Perry Okudzeto has said the government deserves all the credit for the improvement in the country’s economy.

He said the government despite inheriting a poor economy from the John Mahama government, has managed to turn it around and showing sings of great prospects.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to him, the situation will leave worsen Ghana’s debt status which could seriously affect the country’s economic growth and development.

[contextly_sidebar id=”ia8Likw2U3tkL5HRm7wMSQCe98qnpQSC”]The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has announced that the government of China has agreed to commit 15 billion dollars worth of investment in Ghana.

Dr. Bawumia pointed out that, Ghana was able to secure the commitment due to a new financing model designed by the Economic Management Team.

But Speaking on Eyewitness News on Tuesday, the NDC MP chastised the Vice President, Dr. Bawumia for spearheading the agreement to contract the loan from the Asian country, despite he being a heavy critic of the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) government’s decision to contract a similar loan.

“We are dealing with a country where borrowing $1bn of Eurobond was described by Bawumia himself as very reckless borrowing and he put in perspective the GDP ratio when we were borrowing just $1bn. In the 2017 budget by this government, the debt to GDP of 72% was vilified as the worst this country could ever have, now to add $19bn of an additional loan in such a short period will push our debt to GDP to the region of 120% and 130% of GDP. That is the worst that you can find in the world,” he said.

“For a person like Bawumia to now be saying that we should be clapping for him for ditching us into 130% debt to GDP is frightening, scary and reckless,” he noted.

But the Deputy Finance Minister, Kwaku Kwarteng, discounted the claims saying that the government believes that conditions for the loan were appropriate.

He said although the modalities for the disbursement of the funds were yet to be drawn, the government is working to ensure that the interest of Ghanaians remain paramount.

Kwaku Kwarteng further discounted claims that the NPP government will exceed its debt to GDP target.

He said the government will be responsible for ensuring the country’s debt sustainability is within acceptable limits.

“It is not as though we said one thing to parliament and we are doing something different. Let not anyone suggest we said we will not borrow. I think the minority’s concern is a legitimate concern,” he said.

He, however said it was premature for the minority to raise concerns about the facility since the modalities and other details for the release of the funds are yet to be drawn.

China’s Eximbank in 2012, agreed a $3bn facility to the previous Mills and Mahama governments, but only $1bn was released after years of back and forth between the two countries.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Comedian, Lilwin, has always been well received anytime he mounted the stage to perform and loud applause ushers him off stage when he is done with his act.

Source: Graphic Online

The post Lil Win — They shouldn’t have stopped me appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.