{"id":369911,"date":"2017-11-10T10:52:43","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T10:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=369911"},"modified":"2017-11-10T10:59:53","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T10:59:53","slug":"energy-bond-not-total-failure-prof-bokpin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/11\/energy-bond-not-total-failure-prof-bokpin\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy bond not ‘total failure’ \u2013 Prof. Bokpin"},"content":{"rendered":"
Economist and Head of Finance at the University of Ghana Business School, Professor Godfred Alufar\u00a0Bokpin, says government\u2019s recently issued Energy Bond<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0 only fell short of expectations, and cannot be said to be a “total failure.”<\/p>\n According to him, the government still has an option of making amends for the shortfalls in the process.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”OUITIm9g2bNOF2hbkU8IsIzCClFg52Ov”]\u201cGiven the fact that government had given a certain period within which it will do the whole bond issue, one will be very careful to say it is a total failure because there is an option for them to go to the market to determine the market conditions. But given the indications that we received earlier, and government\u2019s own confidence that the bond will be more successful and what we have, then it fell short of our expectations and that is a fact,\u201d he said in an interview on Eyewitness News<\/strong> on Thursday.<\/p>\n Prof. Bokpin also said he believes it would have been more appropriate for the government to issue the bond as a sovereign bond rather than a corporate bond.<\/p>\n \u201cMy considered view is that given this circumstance, it would have been more preferable for government to go for a sovereign bond rather than a corporate bond. What we are trying to do is that, we want to keep our debt to GDP ratio within the target for the year and for next year, but at the end of the day, this special purpose vehicle is fully backed by government\u2026. One school of thought can easily classify this energy bond typically as a public debt even though Ghana government will say it is not\u2026 In terms of strategy, we will not say the government was totally wrong,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Government issued a ten year and seven year bond with the aim of getting GHc6 billion to offset the legacy debts of the energy sector, which was about GHc10 billion.<\/p>\n But in all, a total of\u00a0GHc4.69 billion<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0was realized even after a seven day extension period.<\/p>\n The 7-year component raked in 2.4 billion cedis as targeted, at an interest rate of\u00a019 percent<\/a><\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n However, the 10 year bond failed to hit the 3.6 billion cedis mark.<\/p>\n