Pensioner Bondholders won’t participate in new DDEP for ESLA, Daakye bonds – Convener

Convener for the Pensioner Bondholders Forum, Dr Adu Anane Antwi, has asserted that its members will not participate in government’s new Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) for E.S.L.A. Plc and Daakye Trust Plc bondholders.

The Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Finance is inviting holders of the domestic notes and bonds to voluntarily accept the invitation and participate in the debt swap programme.

In a statement issued on September 13, 2023, the Ministry of Finance clarified that the new offer is aimed at affording bondholders who could not participate in the February 2023 debt swap programme, as result of some technical delays.

Reacting to the development in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM, Dr Antwi emphasized that no pensioner is available to accept government’s latest offer as they have been exempted from the DDEP.

“No pensioner bondholder can ever be targeted, because we have been exempted totally. We don’t have anything to do with this exchange at all. We are not part of it. There’s no pensioner available now for an offer to be made to, simple as that.

There’s nobody in category B who is there for the offer, and says I wanted to go in, but I didn’t have the opportunity to go in so now, I’m going in. So category B shouldn’t be in this document at all,” he is quoted by citinewsroom.com

"The government cannot overturn its own decision to exempt us. It is in the records of parliament, we have a letter, we have been exempted, and it’s not based on any condition, it’s an unconditional exemption. Government cannot go anywhere,” Dr Adu Anwti lamented.

He, however, rebuked the Ministry of Finance for failing to understand its own DDEP terms which it issued out in its September 13 release.

“I believe they [government] didn’t get the understanding well, they haven’t analysed things well. If you analyse the situation, the person who was writing the memorandum of exchange should have known that there were no Category B holders available for that offer. They have already accepted. We will have a press conference and explain to the people who are handling this matter that they are wrong. They didn’t understand the concept well,” the Convener of Pensioner Bondholders said.

MA/NOQ

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