The Ghana Individual Bondholders’ Forum (IBF) and the Individual Bondholders Association of Ghana (IBHAG), which make up the Coalition of Individual Bondholders Group, have made a strong demand for the payment of their outstanding principal and matured coupons by Friday, June 30.
In a statement, the coalition voiced its great worry over the government’s disregard for an earlier Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was meant to guarantee prompt payments.
The coalition emphasized the urgency of the matter and highlighted the detrimental impact of delayed payments on individual bondholders.
“We are utterly disturbed by the failure of the Ministry to commence implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding dated 16th May 2023 and executed between your office and the Coalition of Individual Bondholders (CIBG) on the 16th of June, 2023. It has been 42 days since reaching the understanding and 11 days since the signing with no implementation undertaken.
“We do not want to believe that the invitation to dialogue was a futile action and a time-buying gimmick, but a conscious effort by both parties to ensure there is some relief to bondholders.”
Coalition of Individual Bondholders Group
Government Urged To Swiftly Quicken Memo On Converting Treasury bills
The Coalition encouraged MoF to expedite its work in light of the difficulty, pain, and enormous sorrow imposed on by government measures to bondholders.
“FastTrack the Memoranda on Treasury bill conversion (June and beyond maturing bonds) for consideration of our membership by COB Friday, 30th June 2023.
“Each day of refusal to pay the matured coupons and principals represents: Critical health care and medication denied and serious injury to health of our membership and their dependents including their aged parents, Inability to pay school fees and education denied children, Denial of such basic needs as food and shelter – the plight of many of our members.”
Coalition of Individual Bondholders Group
According to the Coalition, it will be insensitive for the government to renege on its promises again as this will trigger myriads of actions
“We have tried so much to control further actions. We have had our fair share of the burden with Principals locked for over 4 months losing value with each passing day.
“It is the turn of the government to demonstrate its sense of responsibility, fairness and sensitivity to its citizens who opted to trust it with their hard-earned savings.”
Coalition of Individual Bondholders Group
It can be recalled that Government and the Coalition of Individual Bondholder Groups (CIBG) announced their efforts to reach a significant agreement to resolve the issue of outstanding domestic debt service payments owed by the government to individual bondholders who did not participate in then DDE Programme.
Government disclosed its plans to reprofile the maturing bonds into Treasury Bills (T-Bills) at the current interest rates as they approached maturity – in order to address the immediate financial needs of bondholders who have been awaiting overdue payments.
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