A Convenor of the Individual Bondholders Forum has responded to the caution by the Finance Ministry regarding tradability of old bonds in the wake of the debt exchange programme.

According to Martin Kpebu, individual bondholders are not concerned about the tradability of the bonds as much as they are over being exempted from the programme.

He added that they have been duly advised on the tradability or otherwise of the bonds.

Speaking on JoyNews Newsfile, on Saturday, he noted that some of the bonds are already maturing so there is no cause for alarm.

“As we speak now, Monday, February 6, about 4 billion of the bonds will be maturing. Then you go to about 20^th February, another 4.2 billion will be maturing. So the point I am making is that lots of people are about to get paid anyway so there is no incentive for them to sign on,” he said.

This comes after the Finance Ministry on Tuesday offered yet another opportunity for domestic bondholders to take up government’s offer to enroll onto its proposed debt exchange programme when it extended the deadline for signing up by one week.

The offer notice also cautioned of serious challenges should the bondholders keep their bonds and later decide to offload them ahead of maturity.

The market for the old bonds will shrink considerably and thus impose difficulties for holders deciding to sell prematurely.

According to Mr. Kpebu, per research conducted, “if we go with the proposals made by the government in the memorandum, we are going to lose about 60 to 88% of the value of the bonds”, adding that the revised deal is no offer.

Mr. Kpebu maintained that the individual bondholders will hold on to the existing bonds and not sign up for the revised debt exchange programme.

This, he stated is because of the assurance from the Finance Minister that the existing bonds will be honoured.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Finance Minister, John Kumah has stated that individual bondholders who do not sign up to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme will receive full payment for their coupons upon maturity.

Ho noted however that exempting themselves from the programme might do them more harm than good, because they will not be able to trade their bonds before the maturity date.

“Let me advise those who want to hold on to the old bonds, you have to hold on till end of maturity. So if your bond will end in 2027, please no matter your situation don’t try to sell it because there will be no market for the old bonds, we are transitioning all the bonds to the new ones”, he stated.