Ken Ofori-Atta is Africa's most innovative Finance Minister - McDermott

Graphic.com.gh Business News Jun - 28 - 2021 , 15:14

The Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta has been described as the most innovative Minister of Finance 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.

Ken Ofori-Atta is Africa's most innovative finance minister https://t.co/KBFqYzFZbF
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— John McDermott (@johnpmcdermott) June 23, 2021

“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 implications 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.