Spokesperson for President John Dramani Mahama and Minister of State for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has dismissed assertions by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that the government’s recent debt payments were made possible due to financial reserves left behind by the previous administration.

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Former Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam had suggested that the NPP strategically established financial safeguards within Ghana’s Debt Reserves Accounts to ensure the country could meet its debt obligations.

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His remarks followed President Mahama’s directive to Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson to proceed with the fourth coupon payment for bondholders under the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP). Dr. Amin Adam maintained that while the current administration was being praised for honoring these payments, credit should go to the NPP for the financial structures they had put in place.

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However, addressing journalists in Accra on Wednesday, February 19, Kwakye Ofosu refuted these claims, describing them as misleading.

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“Subsequent to the announcement of these payments and the announcement that the sinking fund has been reactivated, we have had some rebuttals from the NPP whose officials have claimed that we have been able to do that as a government only because they left some buffers and that it is not because of any specific intervention from President John Mahama. I wish to place on record that this narrative is untrue,” Kwakye Ofosu stated.

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He explained that the sinking fund—more accurately referred to as the debt service reserve account serves as a repository for funds meant for bondholders and creditors, with both cedi and dollar components.

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He challenged the NPP to present concrete proof of the financial buffers they claim to have secured.

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“For officials of the former government to be able to say that these payments and honoring of these obligations have been the outcome of work they did, they need to point specifically where those buffers were located,” he argued.

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Providing figures to counter the NPP’s assertions, Kwakye Ofosu pointed out that the last transaction recorded in the account under the NPP’s administration occurred on October 22, 2024, leaving a balance of only $64,387—an amount grossly inadequate to cover the GHS6 billion needed for payments.

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In contrast, he noted that on January 31, 2025, under the leadership of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, the NDC administration credited the account with $96,915,182.

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He further revealed that upon assuming office on January 7, 2025, the NDC found the cedi-denominated reserve account had a balance of GHS155,463,435, with the last transaction under the NPP made on January 2.

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“If you look at the cedi denominated reserve account, you will find also that when the NDC took over on January 7, 2025, the last time that anything had happened in that account before the NPP left was January 2, 2025. The amount of money in that account was GHS 155,463,435,” Kwakye Ofosu added.

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Since then, he said, the government has injected an additional GHS9 billion into the fund, bringing the total to GHS15 billion—enough to cover upcoming bond payments due in July and August.

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