News Review for Wednesday 25th October 2017: IMF meets Parliament over Energy Bond”

Welcome to Wednesday

In the news today are the following headlines:

The EIB network portal disclosed “IMF meets Parliament over Energy Bond”.  According to the news portal, Officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will tomorrow, October 26, 2017 meet Parliament’s select committee of Finance. Topmost among the issues officials of the Bretton Wood institution will be discussing with the MPs will be government’s decision to issue GhC10m bonds to retire the energy sector debts which is threatening the survival of some local banks. The IMF wants the facility to be captured as part of public debt. Government, however, insists it is using an independent Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), the ESLA Plc for the sole purpose of issuing debt securities to refinance the energy sector debt.

Also,  Classfmonline reported “NPA to auction 15 trucks involved in fuel smuggling”. The Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Alhassan Tampuli, has told participants at the ongoing Oil Trading and Logistics Downstream Week in Lagos, Nigeria, of the stringent measures the Authority had put in place to curb fuel smuggling in the country.  They explained that He said the NPA, in collaboration with National Security, had recently confiscated 15 trucks which were found to be engaging in the said illegal acts.

Lastly, Ghana web also reported “Energy Bond: Mark-Assibey Yeboah writes to defend government. The government concluded its roadshow in Accra on Monday 23rd October, 2017 toward the issuance of an energy bond to refinance the energy sector debt.  As at end-June 2016, the stock of debt of ECG, VRA, GRIDCO, GNGC and TOR stood at over GHC 22 billion. These outstanding payments in the energy sector is affecting the development of the sector, crippling banks and slowing down the economy in general.