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Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Hon. Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu believes strongly that the Minority in Parliament and NDC's recent attack on the $2.25 billion bond issued by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta is just a deliberate attempt to delay the bond.

According to him, all the questions the Minority in Parliament raised about the $2.25 billion bond prior to the discussion in Parliament were withdrawn to the interest which the bond will accumulate and not the earlier complain that the bond violates Constitutional requirement.

The issuance of this bond, which government had boasted of an over-subscription saw the minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) raise red-flags over the bond arguing that government was not only causing financial loss to the state but also the finance minister was engaging his “cronies” in the issuance of the bond.

Going back to recent political history, the Majority leader argued that the then NPP minority in the erstwhile Mahama administration was never bent on chastising government over the issuance of local and international bonds all due to the economic challenges Ghana was facing over the past 4 to 8 years.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Hon. Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu said the explanation about the $2.25 billion bond was clear to the Minority in Parliament when the Finance Minister visited the House.

“Before the explanation, the Minority had made so much noise about the bond that the Minister broke the law of Parliament for not presenting the bond to the House. They said NPP promised not to go for any loan and why now. They also said the bond will impose huge debt on the country and that the interest on the bond is too much,” he clarified.

“Just before the sitting the Minority changed their mind that they won’t allow the Minister to talk after presenting the document. They kept going back and forth on the issue relating to the bond,” he added.

He stressed that “the Minister told the House that the NDC in August 2015 went for the same local bond with 26 percent interest and in July 2016, similar bond attracted 24 percent interest but the NPP with $2.25 billion bond, 19.5 percent interest cannot be seen as too much interest.”

The Majority leader again reminded that the $2.25 billion bond is a local bond just as the one Hon. Seth Terkper issued in August 2015; emphasizing that with Ken Ofori-Atta’s bond, people from abroad came to buy but it does not make it foreign bond.

“There is no issue with the $2.25 billion bond which the Minority raised; they just wanted to delay the bond. If it was a foreign bond, there would have been road show and subject to the approval from the Finance Committee of Parliament,” he averred.

“NDC Euro bond cost Ghana close to $4 million dollars but the bond Ken Ofori Atta issued was different because no country has got such an amount before in Africa. Even Nigeria with a lot of money could not raise this amount in their country with their local bond; they have the largest economy but they never got half of our bond. It is a pride for us as a country,” he asserted.