Government of Ghana (GoG), led by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), has provided bondholders an administrative window to complete the process of tendering their bonds.
This is in conjunction with government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), which was supposed to end yesterday, February 7th, 2023.
The government after reviewing the entire programme, observed that some bondholders in tendering their bonds online were faced with some technical challenges, thus, has decided to give them three more days to complete the process.
This is also a strategy to get more individuals participating in the debt exchange programme with no excuses for failing to do so.
It is in view of this that the government has provided a window for completion of the online tendering process, which is in response to the terms of Exchange as amended pursuant to the 2nd Amended and Restated Exchange Memorandum.
Government’s administrative window ends on Friday, February 10th, 2023 at 4:00pm.
“The timetable of the Exchange is not otherwise affected by this, except for the Announcement Date which is now expected to occur on Monday, February 13th,2023. The settlement of the Exchange is still scheduled for Tuesday, February 14th, 2023.”
MoF Press Release
The government emphasized on going by the stipulated timelines, except in the event that it decides to amend or modify the terms and conditions of the Exchange.
Furthermore, the Government of Ghana expressed its immense appreciation to all bondholders who have so far tendered their bonds, also acknowledging their efforts to make the debt exchange programme a success.
The government further urged all eligible bondholders who were unable to complete the online tendering process due to technical difficulties to do so by visiting the Central Securities Depository (CSD) website.
Meanwhile, Prof. John Gatsi, Dean of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) thinks that the deadlines provided by the Finance Ministry is a blackmail.
DDEP deadline should not become a yardstick to secure IMF’s loan
According to Prof. Gatsi, the deadline for the DDEP should not become a yardstick for the government to secure its bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), adding that other countries for a year and over have been in negotiation with the IMF and Ghana can do same.
Prof. Gatsi views the steps taken by the government as a rush and has urged the government to desist from threatening Individual Bondholders with the DDEP deadlines.
These comments from the Dean of UCC is a comeback from the Finance Minister’s address in which he stated that without the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, Ghana’s economy will collapse.
“No resolution has been attained, so I guess this is a deadline imposed by ourselves to ensure that we get our IMF program earlier. So it is not as if we have not been able to reach it today, then we have missed the IMF program. It also seems like a blackmail for the parties to force in signing the Debt Exchange Program as if they are saving the country. I also think that is too much blackmail for the Ghanaian people to take.”
Prof. Gatsi
There are various approaches to this (DDEP), Prof Gatsi said by pointing out the signing of the exchange program by some institutions. On this grounds, he thinks government should augment the support from these institutions with expenditure cuts to lessen the burden on individuals.
“There are areas where the government I think should cut expenditure and need not to cut. Those areas should be looked at and combined. It will help reduce or lower the tension in the country. But the announcement that we have a deadline today, so if the deadline is not reached, we cannot have a program, that one, I consider to be a blackmail.”
Prof. Gatsi
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