The government has extended the deadline for the Debt Exchange Program from today, January 16, to January 31, 2023, to enable it to woo support for the program.
According to a statement issued by the Finance Ministry on Monday, this is “to further engage with stakeholders, especially individual bond holders, to mitigate any adverse impacts.”
“Important discussions are ongoing with financial institutions, notably in relation to forbearance measures, accounting treatment, as well as the structure and parameters of the Ghana Financial Stability Fund (GFSF),” the statement furthered.
This is the third time the government has extended the deadline for the bondholders to voluntarily exchange their bonds for new ones after initial deadlines of December 31, 2022, and January 16, 2023.
Prominent in the DDEP for the last few days have been strong agitations from the Individual Bond Holders Association of Ghana (IBHAG), who have demanded an exclusion from the program.
Organised Labour had also rejected the inclusion of pension funds in the program, as according to them, it would be inimical to the welfare of pensioners.
A close ally of the executive and a lawyer, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, called in a Twitter post for a compromise from the individual bondholders, as their total rejection of the program would mean serious economic consequences while making their investments “potentially worthless.”
Below is the statement from the Finance Ministry:
