The immediate past Finance Minister has dismissed claims that the decision to honour the fourth coupon payment to Domestic Debt Exchange Pro­gramme (DDEP) bondholders was solely at the directive of President John Mahama.

According to Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government had already laid the groundwork to ensure a seamless continuation of these payments. "The NDC Government has announced that the President has directed the Minister for Finance to honour coupon payments to DDEP bondholders," the Karaga MP wrote in an article on Facebook on Monday. "As reported in the announce­ment, this will be the fourth coupon payment due on Tuesday, February 18, 2025. "This means the previous NPP Government honoured three previ­ous payments both in Payment-In- Cash (PIC) and Payment-In-Kind (PIK) between August 2023 and December 2024." He stated that the NPP admin­istration had committed significant resources to meet these obligations, stating that between August 2023 and December 2024, government paid a total of GH¢17.25 billion in PIC and GH¢9.77 billion in PIK to bondholders.

In addition, individual bondhold­ers who did not tender their bonds were paid a total of GH¢515.17 million, in accordance with a mem­orandum of understanding signed between the government and the Coalition of Individual Bondhold­ers. "Since the restructuring of the domestic debts, the previous NPP government has not defaulted in coupon payments. "Buffers were also built in the Debt Reserves Accounts to support upcoming debt service obligations such as the fourth coupon pay­ment," Dr Amin Adam noted.

Providing a breakdown of the payments made under the NPP government, he said first payment totalling GH¢8.55 billion was made in August 2023, second payment total payment of GH¢9.11 billion, February 2023, third payment total­ling, GH¢9.35 billion paid August 2024.