Cassiel Ato Forson, the ranking member of the Parliament's Finance Committee, came to the conclusion that Ghana had declared a "domestic DEBT DEFAULT."

His opinions were circulated on social media following the December 4 announcement of a domestic debt exchange by Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta.

Sadly, Ghana has announced a domestic DEBT DEFAULT.

Tomorrow, Ghana is likely to receive a D rating from rating agencies.

A sad day for banks, investors, and Ghanaians, the author's post from December 4, 2022; read.

A video of Ofori-four-minute Atta's announcement accompanied it.

What Ofori-Atta said:

The Minister of Finance announced a number of measures under government's Domestic Debt Exchange (DDE) programme late Sunday.

He stated in a 4-minute address that the announcement was in line with government's Debt Sustainability Analysis as contained in the 2023 budget he presented to Parliament on November 24.

The Minister laid out among others the exchange of existing domestic bonds with four new ones as well as their maturity dates and terms of coupon payments.

He also addressed the overarching goal of the government relative to its engagements with the International Monetary Fund as well as measures to minimize impact of domestic bond exchange on different stakeholders.

"The Government of Ghana has been working hard to minimize the impact of the domestic debt exchange on investors holding government bonds, particularly small investors, individuals, and other vulnerable groups," he said before outlining three main measures:

• Treasury Bills are completely exempted and all holders will be paid the full value of their investments on maturity.

• There will be NO haircut on the principal of bonds.

• Individual holders of bonds will not be affected.