If investments are added to the existing Domestic Debt Exchange Program, the Ghana Individual Bondholders Forum threatens to organize a protest against the government.
The Forum claims that this will be one of several actions they plan to take to guarantee the security of their investments.
Martin Kpebu disclosed this on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Monday, January 16.
“There is going to be a demonstration, a gargantuan one. We actually have instructions to write to Regional Police Command about this demonstration,” he said.
Mr. Kpebu continued by saying that the Ghana Individual Bondholders Forum has information to the effect that the government will grant their request and exempt their investments from the program.
Concerns regarding the government’s proposed domestic debt swap program have been the subject of growing public dissent from the forum.
The Forum estimates that the bondholders will lose 50% when the coupon rates are “haircut” and 71% when the bonds are discounted at the current Treasury bill rates.
President Akufo-Addo promised in a press release last week that there would be no losses or haircuts, and it was stated that “great will be lost, too much is missing, everything is damaged, you will not recover, and your livelihoods shall be ruined” as a result.
Thus, they have sworn to protest the government’s action using all appropriate measures.
Meanwhile the revised deadline for the domestic debt swap program won’t be met, according to economist Dr. Theo Acheampong.
This comes after a declaration made by the Ministry of Finance on January 16th.
Since it was first announced, the program’s deadline has been postponed three times due to strong opposition from a number of parties, including individual bondholders who claim the government failed to consult them before enrolling them in the scheme.
“Currently in my view, the process has been bungled because of the sort of i-know-it-all attitude of the government where instead of engaging and consulting widely with the people that are affected, a lot of the things were pretty much thrown at them.
“And this is people’s monies, people’s livelihoods that we’re talking about. And so there was always going to be heavy resistance to it. But what people wanted to see was the government to actually engage in an open and frank manner rather than attempting to force the whole thing on them as a take-it-or-leave-it option. And that is really where we have a lot of the challenges now” Dr. Theo said.
