Ken Ofori-Atta
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has indicated that all pensioners who failed to tender their old bonds for new ones under the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) have been exempted from the programme.
According to him, the pensioners have nothing to worry about since all their coupons and principals will be honoured when maturity is due.
The Finance Minister disclosed that he has officially written to the pensioner bondholders who did not sign onto the Programme of their exemption from the exercise.
Addressing Parliament on the state of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, Mr Ofori-Atta said “Government remains committed to the wellbeing of our senior citizens. It has caused me great distress that a number of them have picketed at the premises of the Finance Ministry since Monday, I have said that government will honour their coupons…all pensioners who didn’t participate in the debt exchange are exempted.”
This is as a result of continuous protest by the pensioners who have been picketing for some weeks now.
They are demanding a total exemption from the government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.
According to them, they will continue to picket at the Finance Ministry until the government heeds their demand by officially communicating to them that their investments have been exempted from the DDEP.
The Finance Minister in a statement to confirm the official closing of the Exchange Programme on Monday, February 13, revealed that it has successfully swapped GH₵82,994,510,128 worth of old bonds from a possible GH₵97,749,624,691 under the domestic debt exchange programme.
This he said represents an 84.91 percent success rate exceeding its intended target of an 80 percent participation rate.
By Vincent Kubi