The Ghana Individual Bondholders Forum says they will organise a demonstration against the government if it goes ahead and include investments in the ongoing Domestic Debt Exchange programme.

According to the Forum, this will be part of a series of activities they intend to embark on to ensure their investments are safe. 

One of the conveners, Martin Kpebu disclosed this on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Monday, January 16.

“There is going to be a demonstration, a gargantuan one. We actually have instructions to write to Regional Police Command about this demonstration,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Mr Kpebu added that they (Ghana Individual Bondholders Forum) have picked information that the government will accede to their request and exempt their investments from the programme. 

There have been growing public agitations from the forum about government’s proposed domestic debt exchange programme.

According to the Forum, the bondholders will however lose 71% of their investments when discounted at current Treasury bill rates and 50% when the coupon rates face a ‘haircut’.

In a press statement issued last week, it said, President Akufo-Addo’s promise of no loss or haircut has not in any form been honoured, adding that “great will be lost, too much is missing, everything is broken, you will not recover, your livelihoods shall be destroyed”.

They have thus vowed to use every legitimate means to oppose the move by the government. 

Background 

The government a bid to rescue the economy and secure a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), government has proposed that all bondholders will not receive any interest on their bonds for the 2023 financial year.

The payment of dividends, according to government is likely to begin next year, 2024 at a discounted rate of 5%.

In relation to this, bondholders who may want to transfer or even forfeit their bonds will not even be able to get the full principal they initially invested as bonds.