Charles Adu Boahen is Minister of State at the Finance Ministry
•Government has said it is keen on selling diaspora bonds to Ghanaians living abroad
•According to Charles Adu Boahen, government will take a much cautious approach to implement the best idea for the move
•Ghana is already targeting to raise US$1 billion through the sale of sustainable bonds on the international capital market
Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Charles Adu Boahen has indicated government’s keenness to selling diaspora bonds to Ghanaians living abroad.
According to him, the central government is carefully exploring a number of strategies to implement the best possible idea for the move.
In an interaction with Business24 monitored by GhanaWeb, the minister of state said a preliminary analysis of the diaspora bonds has so far shown how challenging it could be.
“The challenge about diaspora bonds is that to sell them, you have to have permission to distribute retail. So, if you are in America and you want to sell diaspora bonds to an investor base, you have to actually distribute or market it to every individual. [Because] every state in America has different rules when it comes to selling securities to individuals, you have to have a whole distribution team of brokers all over the country.
“Each one of them has to abide by the rules to be able to sell the products to individuals and then try and generate the funds. When we looked at the total market and what it would take to do that kind of set-up, it was very challenging,” he told Business24.
He continued: “It would be easier if we could sell a Ghanaian product like a domestic bond and have people remit their funds here and buy the bond. So, we are looking at different structures that would work and appeal to everybody, but also [so that] we would not run into regulatory impediments.”
As part of measures to rake in funds to undertake social and environmental projects, the Government of Ghana has targeted to raise some US$1 billion through the sale of sustainable bonds on the international capital market.
Ghana is also seeking to issue its first green bonds with the move likely to go ahead in November this year, according to sources familiar with the matter.