‘Ken Ofori-Atta Is Africa’s Most Innovative Finance Minister’– McDermott
Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has been described as the most innovative Finance Minister in Africa.
He was commended by the Economist magazine’s chief Africa correspondent, John McDermott, who was responding to a tweet from a Bloomberg article about Ghana’s plans for a sustainable bond to fund Free SHS policy.
“Ofori-Atta is Africa’s most innovative Finance Minister,” he submitted while replying a tweet.
Author of the oroginal tweet, Jack Rossiter – an analyst with the Center for Global Development – quoted a portion of the article which read: “Ghana is planning to raise as much as $1 billion through a sale of sustainable bonds, including Africa’s first social debt to fund a flagship policy [Free SHS] to broaden access to education.”
McDermott was then asked by another analyst about the implictions of such a bond: “With all due respect to the Minister, isn’t this just one step closer to a debt default? Unless I have missed something, innovative debt is pretty much the same as traditional debt when your debt ratio is up at 80+%?” Prof Nic Cheeseman quizzed.
To that, McDermott simple replied: “Innovative” a double-edged sword…”
The minister has been praised for leadership in rebooting the economy and putting in place measures to restore it back to pre-pandemic levels.