NPP’s Govt’s ‘Buffer’ Narrative Challenged as Kwakye Ofosu Sets the Record Straight

Spokesperson for President John Dramani Mahama, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has refuted claims by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that the current government’s ability to service debt payments is due to buffers left by the previous NPP administration.

According to Kwakye Ofosu, this narrative is untrue. He provided details to support his assertion.

He explained that the sinking fund, officially known as the debt service reserve account, is where money is kept pending the payment of bondholders and other creditors. This account has both a cedi component and a dollar component, and statements of account can show transactions over a certain period.

“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.

He challenged the NPP to provide evidence of the buffers they claimed to have left. “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.

Kwakye Ofosu noted that the last movement in the account under the NPP was on October 22, 2024, with a balance of $64,387, which is insufficient to cover payments in the range of GHS6 billion. In contrast, on January 31, 2025, the NDC government, under Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, lodged an amount of $96,915,182 into the account.

He further stated that an additional GHS9 billion is currently sitting in the fund to pay for maturing coupons in July and August, bringing the total to GHS15 billion. This development highlights the current government’s efforts to manage the country’s debt obligations, despite the challenges inherited from the previous administration.

By Phalonzy