Pensioner bondholders have once again berated the finance minister while asking the Government to focus on servicing their coupons and not worry about the tradability of their bonds.
According to Dr Anane Antwi, the Convener of the Pensioners Bondholders Forum, finding value for their old bonds in the future is the sole responsibility of individual holders who have no intention of trading their bonds anytime soon.
“They didn’t buy the bonds to trade; they bought these bonds to hold on to maturity. It is the coupons that they will be receiving that they are interested in,” Dr Anane Antwi stated.
Highlighting the outcomes of a second meeting between the leadership of the Pensioner Bondholders Forum and the Finance Minister of Ghana on Friday, Dr Anane Antwi said the Government has maintained that the programme is voluntary, so pensioners were free to opt-out.
Dr Antwi, however, noted that the best way to solve the problem of tradability the Government has raised and to guarantee the inflow of coupons for pensioners to sustain their livelihoods is to grant the exemption.
“There is a difference between the issuer exempting you and you yourself opting out. I said if the issuer exempts you from restructuring, the issuer is telling you that, for these debts, I don’t have a challenge. I can handle whatever there is that I must handle that is why I am not restructuring it. This is what exemption means.”
Dr Anane Antwi
Younger Groups And Civil Society Organisations To Join The Call
Dr Charles Fordjour, a pharmacist, who joined the picketing at the Finance Ministry by the bondholders on Monday said it is time for younger groups and Civil Society Organisations (CSO) to join the call for exemption of the aged from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.
Dr Charles Fordjour noted that it is inappropriate to tamper with the livelihood of senior citizens who relied on bonds to feed and access health care. The aged, he said, must be accorded the needed respect and honoured with love and care for their immense role in nation-building.
“Can you imagine if one of them should lose their life because they could not afford their medication or even one of them could not feed because they could not have money to buy food? The consequences on us, the spiritual curses. I think we should all rise and say no, not their money.”
Dr Charles Fordjour
A series of picketing by the pensioners started last week. The presence of the former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo grabbed the headlines. The former Chief Justice of Ghana joined the protest by the retirees picketing at the Ministry of Finance in Accra over the government’s domestic debt exchange programme.
Justice Akuffo, unhappy with the government’s debt exchange programme involving the retirees, joined them by holding a placard with the inscription: “We use our bond yields to pay our: rents, medical bills, electricity, and water bills.”
The government proposed a 15 percent coupon rate, but the aggrieved retirees rejected the offer that they will not accept any haircuts on their investments because their livelihoods depend on the proceeds from these investments.
The deadline for signing up for the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme elapsed last Friday with the Government yet to make any pronouncement on the programme.
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