Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central and member of Parliament’s Accounts Committee, Isaac Adongo has rubbished Fitch’s upgrade of Ghana’s Long-Term (LT) Local-Currency (LC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘CCC’ from ‘RD.’

The Bolgatanga Central lawmaker says there is nothing to celebrate about the upgrade because the reality on the ground is that of hardship and suffering visited on investors and pensioners through the government’s infamous domestic debt exchange programme.

Speaking in an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, Mr. Adongo said that though Fitch thinks Ghana has made some gains with the domestic debt exchange programme, what the government has actually done is postpone the problem of default.

“Fundamentally, there is nothing worthy to celebrate about the upgrade because what they have simply done is deny poor people and pensioners their monies and Fitch is celebrating that as a gain but to the people affected, they will not be happy and will not celebrate such a rating.”

Mr. Adongo further elaborated that the upgrade can simply be described as a postponement of the country’s debt which has created a breathing space for the government.

“It is not about the economic recovery or improvement but about the implementation of the domestic debt exchange programme where we have engaged creditors on different terms which have created some room for breathing and so, that cannot be something that we should be celebrating.”

According to Fitch, the upgrade of Ghana’s LC-denominated debt follows the completion, effective 21 February 2023, of the domestic debt exchange programme by the Republic of Ghana.

Fitch viewed the debt exchange programme as a distressed debt exchange in a context of heightened fiscal pressures, with interest costs amounting to 54% of revenues in 1H22, and a lack of access to international capital markets.