Dr. Adu Anane Antwi, Immediate Past Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Convener of the Individual Bondholders Forum (IBF) has expressed his disappointment in the statement issued to them by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), saying government should not wait and go past certain milestones before issuing a statement.
The Individual Bondholders Forum (IBF) lamented passionately about the way and manner the Finance Ministry goes about its communication with regards to its come back on payment of coupons and principals due to be paid them after expiration of maturities.
“As I have always said, this is not how financial players and operators in the market must work. You don’t wait and go past certain milestones and targets before you issue a statement. If you are not able to pay, what the issuer should have done was to make a statement before the expiration of the payment date and not after.
“Why would the Ministry not learn from the earlier one? That was also past. And we have to go there before answers are given and a statement made and I thought that was going to be the end of this kind of how the Ministry is behaving in the market.”
Dr. Antwi
According to Dr. Antwi, the Ministry, representing the government is in the financial market and must therefore do its work as other corporate issuers do in the financial market.
“If information must come, the issuer must put down that information…You can’t pay on the 13th and you are not able to tell the market that as a result of A, B, C, D, I cannot pay on the 13th. You wait for the 13th to pass. You wait for 14th to come before you come out with this statement? That is not how financial market players should be working.”
Dr. Antwi
On his part, Martin Kpebu, Lawyer and Convener of the Individual Bondholders Forum termed the recent action of the Finance Ministry as disrespect to the Individual Bondholders.
“So you see the extent to which Mr. Ofori-Atta and the President disrespect bondholders? At least, courtesy would have even demanded that they would have given us advance copies. Mr. Ofori Atta has our telephone numbers; he could have called to talk with us before. But now, we are hearing it on radio.
“And that is one thing that has been recurring over and over – Mr. Ofori-Atta’s super-incompetence. The way he’s handled this Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) from the beginning to the end messed up everything. His incompetence shows at every stage.”
Martin Kpebu
MoF’s provisional coupon and principal payments deemed insufficient
Dr. Adu Anane Antwi, addressing the sufficiency of the provisional payments to be made by the Ministry to the February 6, 2023 and February 13, 2023 matured coupons which have been delayed, said it will be insufficient. Explaining thus, he said:
“At the last meeting that we had with the Finance Minister, I said that if the Minister/government knows or thinks that it cannot pay all the matured coupons and principals to this bonds, the statement that was issued on the 27th of February should be clear. When the statement came, there was no such thing. So to me, as far as I’m concerned, being a market person, if such a statement is issued, you’ll take it that by the 13th of March, every bond that had matured by that time, will be paid.
“So it’s just this statement (on insufficiency), that is now clarifying that some will be paid and some will not be paid. Then, my question is; why didn’t you say it that day…it is now that you are saying some will be paid and some will not be. I am still saying that, that is not how we should run our financial market.”
Dr. Antwi
IBF Members to suffer a death knell owing to delayed payments
The latest bond matured on March 7, 2023, however, has not been covered by the statement issued by MoF indicating that holders of these bond will not be paid anytime soon. The statement from MoF reads; “payment dates for subsequent maturities will be communicated in due course as processing continues”. In further explaining the implication of this statement, Martin Kpebu said:
“That sounds like a death knell for our members, those in that category. Because then, it means that their plans have already been ruled out, they can’t even make any re-adjustments. They can’t plan for the future. So we are just left in the dark. And that’s not how to run a bond programme. That’s not how to do it. Government has money to pay. Just that they are not prioritizing bondholders…”
Martin Kpebu
READ ALSO: MoF Assures IBF Of Honoring Delayed Payments Within The 48-Hours Ultimatum Posed
