Individual bondholders told to ditch Domestic Debt Exchange  

The Ghana Individual Bondholders Forum (IBF), a group of voluntary bondholders, has appealed to individual bondholders to reject and refrain from complying with the mandatory deadline imposed under the Domestic Debt Exchange (DDE) programme.

It rather wants them to join the efforts of the IBF to seek an effective resolution to the developing impasse.

A statement signed by Senyo Hosi, Finance and Economic Policy Analyst and Entrepreneur also urged indirect bondholders (investors in mutual funds, cash trusts, balance funds) to inform their fund managers not to accept the DDE.

It advised government to open a channel of communication for immediate frank, transparent and sincere dialogue on the DDE with the IBF with the view to seeking an effective resolution to the developing impasse and the fast-depleting confidence in the Ghanaian economy.

It added that “the medium- to long-term prospect and outlook of the domestic investment culture in Ghana is going to be affected by this DDE initiative and we call on government to demonstrate the needed sensitivity to enable a constructive resolution in the best interest of all”.

It, therefore, called on labour unions to join them in the fight for the preservation of hard-earned savings invested by the Ghanaian public which also includes their members, adding “we also look forward to partnering like-minded groups and organizations to achieve our joint goals”.

The Government of Ghana announced that under the DDE programme, individual bondholders are to submit to a “voluntary” arrangement to exchange their domestic bonds for new benchmark bonds.

IBF said “this arrangement irreversibly takes away the wealth and livelihoods of direct and indirect individual bondholders whose only crime has been to trust their government. Tied to this is a mandatory deadline which compels holders to either accept the government’s offer or risk the threat of prohibitive losses”.

The IBF investments is in Government of Ghana Local Cedi Bonds, Government of Ghana Local US Dollar Bonds, ESLA Bonds, Daakye Bonds, Ghana Eurobonds and Collective Investment Schemes.