'We don't want the economy to crash like it did last year' - Ofori-Atta to Pensioner bondholders

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has intimated that any further delay that impedes the country's ability to access an IMF bailout by mid-march will be detrimental to the economy.

He made the comment when the Pensioner Bondholders forum picketed the Finance Ministry on February 6, 2023, to exempt them from the debt exchange programme.

Ofori-Atta asked the pensioners to accept a 3.5% cut and accept the new terms of 15% coupon rate and 5% maturity.

“We really feel that government has listened, there is humanity to us, we are protecting the destitute, widows and the orphans and the older people who have worked for this nation. We are in a crisis, we cannot put our heads under the sun and pretend that we are not.

“We need to be mindful that we really need to be successful in going to the fund by this March to avoid what we all experienced last year which we all don’t want to experience again,” he added.

According to the group, attempts to have their investment exempted from the programme have proved futile, reason for their decision to picket at the finance ministry until their demands are met.

“On 10 January 2023, we submitted a petition to the Minister of Finance to exempt all pensioners holding Government Bonds from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme on the same basis used for the exemption of Pension Funds from the programme, as the impact of the programme on pensioners who are bondholders will be very severe.

“We have as of today not been granted the exemption we requested. To further press home our request, we have notified the Police that about 50 of our members intend to converge at the premises of the Ministry of Finance on every working day from 10 am-11 am, beginning from Monday 6th February 2023 till our request is granted by the Minister.”

The deadline for the government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme has been set for Tuesday, February 7, 2023.



SSD/DA